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Dickson's 
How to Speak 
In Public 




Founder and Principal Dickson School of Memory 
Former Instructor in Public Speaking: Chicago University 
University of Notre Dame, Union College of Law, etc. 



^4wv Dickson^s 

How to Speak 
in Public 

JntroDuction 6g (glbett i^utiftarD 

Appendix 

"Self-Improvement Through 
Public Speaking" 

AND 

"If You Can Talk Well" 

By Dr. Orison Swett Marden 

Lecture on Memory delivered by Henry 
Dickson before the Metaphysical Society 

Over One Thousand Topics for Orations, 
Speeches, Essays, Etc. Also Model 
Questions for Debate, Preparation 
of Programs. :: :: :s :: 

SIXTH ED Ft ion 

CHICAGO 

DICKSON SCHOOL OF MEMORY 
Auditorium Building 






Copyright 1911 and 1913 

By HENRY DICKSON 

All Rights Reserved 

^ ■■ 



PRESS OF THE 

BLAK£LY-0SWALD CoMPAirv 

COICAOS 



Introduction 

Elbert Hubbard 



ORATORY supplies the most sublime gratification 
which the gods have to give. To subdue the 
audience and blend mind with mind affords an intoxi- 
cation beyond the ambrosia of Elysium. 

When Sophocles pictured the god Mercury seizing upon 
the fairest daughter of earth and carrying her away through 
the realms of space, he had in mind the power of the orator, 
which through love lifts up humanity and sways men by a 
burst of feeling that brooks no resistance. Oratory is the 
child of democracy: it pleads for the weak, for the many 
against the few, and no great speech was ever yet given 
save in behalf of mankind. The orator feels their joys, their 
sorrows, their hopes, their desires, their aspirations, their 
sufferings, their pains. They may have wandered far, but 
his arms are opened wide for their return. Here alone does 
soul respond to soul. And it is love, alone, that fuses feeling 
so that all are of one mind and mood. Oratory is an exercise 
of power. 

Henry Dickson, founder and principal of the DICKSON 
SCHOOL OF MEMORY, is the author of a new book 
on oratory which is of interest to every man who wishes to 
understand the joy of this exercise of power. 

The name of Professor Dickson's book is "How to Speak 
in Public." It contains valuable instruction by this famous 
memory expert. Professor Dickson has done his work well, 
and has shown a charming insight into the heart of his subject. 

The book is divided into chapters, which makes it easy to 
use, as you can turn to the subject which concerns you most, 
quickly. 




OOK to this Da^, for 
it is Ijfe^the <zx$ Life of 
Life. In its brief course 
lie all the <?eritics and 
realities of 5?our existence: the 
bliss of qrot(^tK,the alor(7 of 
Action, the splendor ofBeaut^. 
Krr <?esterck;^ is already a dream 
and totnorroyQ is onlp a <?ision^ 
but to-da^,\!(?ell"li<fed,Tna1?es ei^er^ 
^^esterdaj? a dream of happiness 
and eOerp to'morrofC' a K'isioti of 
hope. Look tPell,4iercfore, to this 
Day. Such is the salutation of 



the DatC^n. 



SansHnb 



PREFACE 

Xliis book IS designed to give practical instruction 
in tlie art of speaking before an audience. Nearly 
every person is called upon occasionally to say a 
few worJs m public, and one -v^lio nas had training 
welcomes tlie opportunity. For those wno nave 
not had the necessary training tliis dook nas been 
prepared. It provides a wealtk of material, together 
w^itk instructions and suggestions that will enable the 
speaker to do justice to liimself and to any occasion. 

Usually tLe call to speak comes unexpectedly, witn out 
little, ir any, cnance for preparation. Besides, Dusy men 
and -women nave no time for courses m elocution, oratory, 
etc. TLe demand, therefore, is for sometLmg wkich can 
be put to immediate, practical use; and tnis nas been regard- 
ed as tke essential requirement tkrougkout tke preparation 
of tnis volume. 

A reliable memory is one of tne most necessary attributes 
of tke speaker. Tke best results from tke study of tbis 
book will be obtained only by tkose ^vko kave taken up 
and completed tke Dickson Course m Memory 1 raining. 

In four parts and an appendix, mrormation and practical 
illustrations are given concerning Tke Preliminary Steps, 
Metkods of Great Orators, Peroration, Closing and 
Climax, How to gam tke Confidence of an Audience, tke 
Value of Repetition and Suggestion, ilow to make 
Speeckes tkat will be Effective, How to make yourself 
Heard, Debating, etc. 



Part I V consists of Masterpieces of Oratory, and a 
numocr of cnoice Poems ana Prose Selections by different 
autliors m a wide diversity of style. 

Xne volume also contains a large numter of SLakespear- 
ean and otner quotations tnat are especially adapted for 
use m speeckes and addresses, also numerous sLort sketckes, 
toasts, ready-made speechlets, anecdotes, Lappy beginnings, 
etc. 

A novel feature is a list of over one tkousand Topics 
for orations, lectures, addresses, etc., emkodymg a great 
variety of subjects of general and special interest from 
every field of human endeavor. Model Questions for 
Debates, and useful Lints on tke preparation of Programs 
are also provided. 

Special attention is called to Dr. Orison Swett Marden's 
"^ Delf-Improvement Xkrougn Public Speaking" and "If You 
can talk >AAeU . Professor Henry Dickson a discourse on 
""Memoi-y" delivered before tbe Metapbysical Society, at 
tbe Auditorium, CLicago, and in a number of otber places, 
also incorporated in tnis volume, wul be found of mucn 
value and interest to tne student. 

Xbe autbor gratefully acknowledges bis indebtedness to 
Mr. Elbert Hubbard for tbe introduction and selections 
from bis writings, to Dr. Orison Sw^ett Marden, to Mr. 
Wm. Burgess ("Tbe Bible and Sbakespeare' ) , Mr. Edwin 
Markbam ("Tbe Immortality of Song"), Mr. Elmer E. 
Rogers ("How to Make Speecbes Tbat ^W^ill Have 
Effect"), Professor J. W. Cburcbill ("How to be Heard 
^Vbcn Speaking in Public"), Mr. Byron V. Kanaley, 
("Public Speaking and Debating in American Colleges'; 
and "Higliways of Literature ). 



CONTENTS 



Introduction (Elbert Hubbard) 5 

Preface 7 

Part ©ne 

Wit, Humor, Pathos, Climaxes and Methods of 
Great Orators and Lecturers, 

Chapter I. — Preliminary Steps 11 

Chapter II. — Methods of Great Orators 15 

Chapter III. — Securing the Confidence of the Audience.. 32 

Chapter IV. — The Peroration — The Closing 36 

Chapter V. — The Value of Repetition and Suggestion... 42 

Chapter VI. — How to Make Speeches That Will Have 

Effect (Elmer E. Rogers) 44 

Chapter VII.— How to Be Heard When Speaking in 

Public (Prof. J. W. Churchill) 49 

Chapter VIII. — Public Speaking and Debating in Ameri- 
can Colleges (Byron V. Kanaley) 52 



CONTENTS 



Part Ctoo 

Shakespearean Quotations for Public Speakers from 

Every Play— Familiar and Frequently Quoted 

Passages— Also Scripture and Shakespeare 

Parallels—Sketch of Life — 

How to Study, 

Chapter IX. — Shakespeare 58 

Chapter X. — The Study of Shakespeare 65 

Chapter XI. — Shakespearean Quotations 69 

Chapter XII. — Scripture and Shakespeare Parallels 91 



Part Cftree 

Ready-Made Speechlets, Toasts, Happy Hits, 
Anecdotes for Every Occasion. 

Chapter XTII.— Ready-Made Speechlets 103 



CONTENTS 



Patt JFour 

Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Choice 
Selections, etc. 

Chapter XIV. — Ingersoll at the Tomb of Napoleon 132 

Sketch of Thomas Jefferson 134 

Ingersoll's Vision of the War 136 

Spartacus to the Gladiators (E. Kellogg) 139 

The Masterpiece of God (Elbert Hubbard) 143 

Abraham Lincoln (Elmer E. Rogers) 146 

Liberty (Henry George) 151 

Greatness of the Universe (Jean Paul Richter) 152 

Reading for the Thought (John Ruskin) 154 

Liberty or Death (Patrick Henry) 156 

Orient Yourself (Horace Mann) 158 

The Tree Our Oldest Servant (Governor Stubbs) ... 159 

The Isle of Long Ago (Benjami i F. Taylor) 161 

Thanatopsis (Bryant) 163 

The Country Churchyard (Thomas Gray) 165 

As I Came Down from Lebanon (Clinton Scollard) . 166 

Pictures of Memory (Alice Cary) 168 

Sandalphon (Longfellow) 169 

The Chambered Nautilus (Holmes) 171 

The Promised Land To-Morrow (Gerald Massey) . . . 172 

The Sculptor Boy (Holmes) 173 

Columbus (Joaquin Miller) 174 

The Immortality of Song (Edwin Markham) 175 

Committing to Memory 176 

appenDfe 

Self -Improvement Thru' Public Speaking and If You Can 
Talk Well (Dr. Orison Swett Marden) 181 

Over One Thousand Subjects for Orations, Speeches, etc., 
embracing Political, Civil, Historical, Moral, Religious 
and Popular Topics 211 

Model Questions for Debate — How to Arrange Programs, 
etc 229 

Lecture on Memory (Henry Dickson) 236 



CONTENTS 



Newly Selected Illustrations 
for Speakers 



Celebrated Passages from the Best Orations and Writings 



The Oratory of Anglo-Saxon Countries (Allen) 213 

Oratory the Masterful Art (Brewer) 214 

Americans, Not Anglo-Saxons (Bethune) 214 

The Essence of Greatness (Bryant) 214 

Remembering Valley Forge (Brown) 215 

Commit to Memory (Brooks) 215 

American Liberty A Thing of Growth (Carson) 216 

Each In His Own Tongue (Carruth) 217 

Home-Made Poetry and Religion (Crane) 218 

Life (Crane) 219 

The Greatest Thing in the World (Drummond) 220 

New England (Grady) 220 

The First Tree of Liberty (Victor Hugo) 221 

On the Death of Senator Hill (Ingalls) 221 

Indian Orators (Black Hawk) 221 

Self-Government (Jefferson) 222 

Strong Government (Jefferson) 222 

Good Government (Jefferson) 223 

Quotations from Lincoln 223 

Character (Moody) 223 

The Life of Law (Macaulay) 224 

The New Zealander in the Ruins of Rome (Macaulay) 224 

The Procession of Being (Hugh Miller) 224 

The Sown Seeds of Life (Hugh Miller) 224 

Invocation to The Sun (Macpherson) 225 

The House Immortal (Nixon) 225 

The Beautiful in Speech (Edgar Allan Poe) 226 

The Bond of Universal Humanity (Reed) 226 

Requiem (Robert Louis Stevenson) 227 

Jefferson's "Nunc Domine" (Wirt) 227 

Popular Government (Daniel Webster) 228 

Liberty and Union (Daniel Webster) 228 

Quotations from Washington 228 

Opening the Worlds Fair (Henry Watterson) 229 

Continuous Life (Joachim Zollicofer) 230 



List of Illustrations 



Portrait Frontispiece 

Scene from Macbeth 64 

Witch Scene from Macbeth 90 

Tomb of Napoleon 132 

Signing the Declaration of Independence 134 

Mona Lisa 142 

Patrick Henry Delivering His Celebrated Speech 15C 

Columbus On the Deck of The Santa Maria 174 



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PART I 

CHAPTER I 

Preliminary Steps 

THE prospective public speaker should memorize and 
recite the beginnings, climaxes and endings of 
great orations until they become thoroughly familiar. 
He will be encouraged to note how certain sentences, 
phrases and words may be used many times, being com- 
bined a little differently in each speech. Demosthenes 
as well as other famous Greek orators followed the same 
practice. Demosthenes had a book containing fifty or 
more stock perorations, cHmaxes, beginnings, endings, 
anecdotes, illustrations and form paragraphs which he 
used repeatedly throughout even his greatest orations, 
though often with suitable variations. The same gen- 
eral plan is admirably adapted to the modern speaker. A 
familiarity with the principles of public speaking should 
not be left to clergymen, lawyers, statesmen, professors, 
lecturers and politicians only, since every one may be 
sure that sometime it will be greatly to his advantage to 
be able to speak distinctly, to the purpose, gracefully, 
and with genuine fire. 

Those engaged in different trades, professions and 
departments of commerce have organizations for the pro- 

11 



How to Speak in Public 

tection and promotion of their respective vocations, and 
practically these associations have become debating so- 
cieties, reaching conclusions and forming rules w^hich 
cannot be ignored by those vi^hose business interests are 
involved. The doctor is often summoned to testify in 
court, perhaps he is associated with the faculty of some 
medical college, where he is called upon to lecture. The 
business man is frequently placed upon educational com- 
mittees; the farmer called upon at agricultural meetings; 
the employee to explain business affairs to his employer; 
in fact, there is no position in Hfe that cannot be bene- 
fitted and advanced by a knowledge of public speaking. 
An excellent exercise is that of paraphrasing, translating 
written thought into one's own words as rapidly as pos- 
sible. This can be applied to popular poems and public 
speeches. It can be done orally and with as much vigor 
and variety of voice utterance as the subject would nat- 
urally suggest. 

Paraphrasing has stood the test of time and its regu- 
lar practice will do more to increase mental activity than 
any other exercise. It is an aid to clear expression, im- 
proves the phraseology and increases the vocabulary, and 
fluency in speaking can be acquired in no better way. 

To paraphrase an idea is to express the same meaning 
in different words. It was Lincoln's favorite method, 
as the student will note in Chapter II. 

While reading aloud, for every adjective, noun and 
adverb that occurs, substitute a synonym as explained 
in Dickson Method of Memory Training, Part Seven. 
Read aloud a sentence, close the book and write the 
sentence as remembered. When the mind fails in 

12 



Methods of Great Orators 

recollection do not have recourse to the book, but sub- 
stitute an equivalent for the word or phrase forgotten, 
taking care to make sense of the passage as a whole ; 
the effort of the brain to recall, the last word, and in 
the event of a failure to do so the substitution of an 
equivalent constitutes the exercise. 

Acquire the habit of listening critically to the best 
speakers, noting the words particularly when the 
climax is reached and the speaker's emotions are deeply 
stirred ; afterward try to reproduce the speech in your 
own words. 



13 



CHAPTER 11. 

Wit, Humor, Pathos, Climaxes and 

Methods of Great Orators 

and Lecturers 

THE following account of successful speakers should 
be carefully studied. Every speech, however short, 
should contain, beside the introductory, a short story 
illustrating the subject, the climax or summing up, and 
the close. 

It has been well said that an anecdote, if well told, 
will prove more interesting and potential than the most 
eloquent utterance or the most elaborate argument. 
Large audiences have frequently been convulsed with 
laughter or bowed down with grief by its mighty in- 
fluence. They are also rich treasures to the man of the 
world who knows how to introduce them in fit places 
in conversation. No speech is complete either at a pub- 
lic gathering, at the banquet table, social session, or 
even small home gathering, without an appropriate 
story. 

Henry Ward Beech er, though dead, still lives in the 
heart of humanity. He was a mighty power in the 
land, and his work was a living work, and its results can 
never be known until the books of heaven are balanced. 
While he never cared to be called a humorist, his wit 
and humor were as keen as his logic. When a humor- 

15 



How to Speak in Public 

ous idea presented itself, he seized upon it at once to 
illustrate his thoughts and frequently changed the tears 
of his audience instantly to laughter. 

"Humor," said Beecher, **is everywhere. Humor is 
truth. Even John Bunyan vv^as a humorist. It was 
humor when Bunyan made Christian meet one 'Atheist' 
trudging along with his back to the Celestial City. 

" 'Where are you going?' asked the Atheist, laugh- 
ing at Christian. 

"'To the Celestial City,' replied Christian, his face 
all aglow with the heavenly Hght. 

"'You fool!' said Atheist, laughing, as he trudged 
on into the darkness. 'I've been hunting for that place 
for twenty years and have seen nothing of it yet. Plainly 
it does not exist.' 

"Heaven was behind him," said Beecher, seriously. 

He never betrayed fear or grew angry even when his 
audience jeered and hurled all kinds of epithets at him, 
and when, at times, it looked as if he were going to be 
stoned or trampled to death. He quietly remarked: "I 
do not blame them, for they know not what they do." 

Before an audience, inimical and prepared to hiss, 
Mr. Beecher won one of the greatest triumphs of his 
life. He pulled off his overcoat, and, without even a 
look of anger, threw it aside. Throwing back his long, 
snow-white locks, revealing a high forehead and a frank, 
determined face, he walked upon the platform. The 
chairman coldly said: "Mr. Beecher, ladies and gentle- 
men." The orator stepped to the front of the platform 
and began his speech in a clear, ringing voice that in- 
stantly hushed the suppressed murmur and jeers. From 

16 



Methods of Great Orators 

that time until he closed the great audience was with 
him. Such flights of oratory, bursts of eloquence and 
keen, irresistible humor I never heard from his lips be- 
fore. Tears, laughter and round after round of applause 
greeted him, and when he ceased the audience remained, 
as if it could not depart. The peroration that the great 
orator delivered brought the people to their feet. He 
walked behind the scene and picked up his overcoat. 
The audience would not go, but Hngered to catch a 
glimpse of him. Throwing down his overcoat, he 
stepped into the auditorium. Women and men shook 
him by the hand; some wanted to touch his garments, 
if nothing else, and for an hour he talked to them 
socially, and they reluctantly parted from him« 

Upon one occasion Andrew Carnegie introduced 
Miss Ingersoll, daughter of the great orator and Atheist, 
to Mr. Beecher, saying: ''This is the daughter of Col- 
onel Ingersoll; she has just heard you speak. This is 
the first sermon she has ever heard, and the first church 
she has ever attended." 

Mr. Beecher's arms were outstretched at once, and 
grasping hers, he said, as he looked into her fair face: 
"Well, you are the most beautiful heathen I ever saw. 
How is your father? He and I have spoken from the 
same platform for a good cause, and wasn't it lucky for 
me I was on the same side with him? Remember me 
to him." 

The youthful speaker must not be afraid of gram- 
matical errors. A stenographer once proposed to Henry 
Ward Beecher that he be allowed extra pay for report- 
ing Mr. Beecher's sermons in consideration of correct- 

17 



How to Speak in Public 

ing the grammatical errors. *'And how many errors 
did you find in this discourse of mine?" asked the great 
preacher. "Just two hundred and sixteen." ''Young 
man," said Mr. Beecher solemnly, "when the English 
language gets in my way it doesn't stand a chance." 
It is a fact that Mr. Beecher in impassioned speech 
uttered many unparsable expressions, and this is the case 
with nearly every great orator who speaks in any way ex- 
temporaneously. So the amateur orator need not despair. 

Of Ingersoll a writer says: "Ingersoll was the 
John the Baptist of Agnosticism — an eloquent voice 
crying in the wilderness. In writing about the elo- 
quence and humor of the century, you could no 
more leave out Ingersoll than the scientists could 
leave out Huxley, Darwin and Herbert Spencer. Even 
Gladstone, who stood on the pinnacle of England's 
intelligence, had to come out and measure swords 
with the witty Agnostic. We may all differ from Inger- 
soll's theology, but we must love him for being the 
Apostle of Freedom — 'freedom for man, woman and 
child.' 

"Ingersoll was one of the most charming conversers 
of his age, and his house was constantly filled with the 
brainiest people of the city. There he sat evening after 
evening, in the bosom of his family, charming with his 
wit and wisdom his delighted guests. 

"The comparisons of the great orator were so mirth- 
provoking that you broke into laughter while you were 
being convinced. 

"One night, when Ingersoll was telling what the Re- 
publican party had done — how it had freed eight million 

18 



Methods of Great Orators 

slaves and saved the republic — he v^^as interrupted by 
Daniel Voorhees, who said: *Oh, bury the past, Colonel; 
talk about to-day. We Democrats are not alw^ays boast- 
ing of the past.* 

" *I will tell you/ said IngersoU, 'why the Demo- 
cratic party wants us to bury the past. Now why should 
we do so? If the Democratic party had a glorious past, 
it would not wish to forget it. If it were not for the 
Repubhcan party there would be no United States now 
on the map of the world. The Democratic party wishes 
to make a bargain with us to say nothing about the 
past and nothing about character. It reminds me of 
the contract that the rooster proposed to make with the 
horse: Let us agree not to step on each other*s feet.*" 

IngersoU paid this tribute to Henry Ward Beecher: 
"As in the leafless woods some tree, aflame with Hfe, 
stands like a rapt poet in the heedless crowd, so stood 
this man among his fellow men. All there is of leaf 
and bud, of flower and fruit, of painted insect life, and 
all the winged and happy children of the air that Sum- 
mer holds beneath her dome of blue, were known and 
loved by him. He loved the yellow Autumn fields, the 
golden stacks, the happy homes of men, the orchard's 
bending bows, the sumach's flags of flame, the maples 
with transfigured leaves, the tender yellow of the beech, 
the wondrous harmonies of brown and gold — the vines 
where hang the clustered spheres of wit and mirth. He 
loved the winter days, the whirl and drift of snow — all 
forms of frost — the rage and fury of the storm, when in 
the forest, desolate and stript, the brave old pine towers 
green and grand — a prophecy of Spring." 

19 



How to Speak in Public 

In another part of this book will be found several of 
IngersoIFs famous addresses. 

Chauncey Depew, in his prime, was one of the best 
after dinner and extemporaneous speakers of his age. 
The following, **On the Blarney Stone," is taken from 
one of his most popular lectures: 

"Ladies and Gentlemen: We started in the morning 
to drive to Blarney Castle and kiss its famous stone. 
We passed a stone cottage about thirty feet long and 
one story high, with a thatched roof. The floor was of 
earth, and the single room divided so that the cow and 
pig could be sheltered in the other half. The Irishman's 
pig is a sacred thing. I said to it's rosy-faced owner: 
*I say, Pat, don't you think it is unhealthful to have 
your pig in the house with your children?' 

** *An' why should oi not, sor? Sure the pig has 
never been sick a day in his life.' " 

The late Mark Twain had a world-wide reputation 
not only as a lecturer but humorist as well. His quaint 
humor was apparent at all times. On one occasion 
there was a long religious discussion on eternal life and 
future punishment for the wicked. Mark Twain, who 
was present, took no part in the discussion. A lady 
finally asked him his opinion. **What do you think, 
Mr. Twain, about the existence of a heaven or hell?" 
"I do not want to express an opinion," said Mark, 
gravely. "It is policy for me to remain silent. I have 
friends in both places." 

20 



Methods of Great Orators 

A writer has described his appearance during the 
delivery of one of his quaint after-dinner speeches: 

"He arose slowly and stood, half stooping over the 
table. Both hands were on the table, palms to the front. 
There was a look of intense earnestness about his eyes. 
It seemed that the weight of an empire was upon his 
shoulders. His sharp eyes looked out from under his 
shaggy eyebrows, moving from one guest to another, as 
a lawyer scans his jury in a death trial. Then he com- 
menced, very slowly: 

*' 'Our children — yours — and — mine. They seem 
like little things to talk about — our children — but little 
things often make up the sum of human life — that's a 
good sentence. I repeat it, little things often produce 
great things. Now, to illustrate, take Sir Isaac New- 
ton — I presume some of you have heard of Mr. Newton. 
Well, once when Sir Isaac Newton — a mere lad — 
got over into the man's apple orchard— I don't know 
what he was doing there — [laughter] — I didn't come 
all the way from Hartford to q-u-e-s-t-i-o-n Mr. New- 
ton's honesty — but when he was there — in the man's 
orchard — he saw an apple fall and he was a-t-t-racted 
towards it [laughter] and that led to the discovery — nor 
of Mr. Newton — [laughter] ^ — but of the great law of 
attraction and gravitation.' " 

Henry Watterson, editor of the Louisville Courier- 
Journal, is not only a writer of national fam.e, but also a 
well-known orator. He declined a Senatorial toga in 
1883, saying: "I will stay where I am. Office is not 
for me. Beginning in slavery to end in poverty. It is 
odious to my sense of freedom." 

21 



How to Speak in Public 

Watterson opposed the war for secession at first, but 
when Tennessee voted for disunion he went back to her 
and entered the Confederate service. 

At the close of the war a Union officer met the bril- 
liant young Kentuckian. They were both radicals. 
Each had fire in his eye. The Yankee general eyed 
Watterson a moment, and then hissed out: "How do 
you Rebels feel now, since you've been whipped by the 
Yankees?" ''Feel a good deal like Lazarus licked by 
the dogs!" replied the fiery Watterson. 

Mr. Watterson's love for Lincoln was natural. Lin- 
coln was born in Kentucky and Nancy Hanks' old cabin 
still stands in the hills south of Louisville. The old rail 
fence, the rails split by Lincoln, are still on the old farm 
covered by clematis and morning-glories. Lincoln was 
a rugged politician and Watterson is a polished jour- 
nalist, but the great journalist loved the homely Lincoln. 
He can not stay his polished pen when it writes about 
his great Kentuckian, and he can not hold his silver 
tongue when it praises the great American. 

"Speaking of Lincoln's wit," said Watterson one 
r'ay; *'the argument he used with Douglas at Knoxville 
College in 1860 was superb. It was wit and wisdom 
boiled down." 

**I can see Lincoln now," continued Watterson. 
"He looked Douglas in the eye, saying: 'This tariff, 
Judge Douglas, should be logical — just tarifi enough — 
just tariff enough, so that we can make these things at 
home without lowering our wages. In fact, Mr. Doug- 
las,' continued Lincoln, 'this tariff should be a good 
deal like a man's legs — just long enough!' 

22 



Methods of Great Orators 

"Douglas had little short legs reaching Lincoln's 
coat-tail, and, turning to Lincoln, he said: *Now, Mr. 
Lincoln, you are a little indefinite. How long should a 
man's legs be?' 

'* *A man's legs, Mr. Douglas,' said Lincoln, with 
mock gravity, 'should be just long enough to reach — 

from — his — body — to — the — ground no surplus, no 

d-e-f-i-c-i-t!' " 

Mr. Watterson has a rugged face and a rugged voice. 
Although he is generally anecdotal and analytical, he 
has climaxes of eloquent oratory. He cHngs to the 
belief, expressed years ago, that Lincoln was a man 
inspired of God. 

A well known orator, who was intimately acquainted 
with Mr. Lincoln before the war, was asked how he 
acquired such a remarkable control of language. He 
replied: "When I was a boy over in Indiana, all the 
local politicians used to come to our cabin to discuss 
politics with my father. I used to sit by and Hsten to 
them. After they were gone I would go up to my room 
in my attic and walk up and down till I made out just 
what they mieant, and then I would lie awake for hours 
putting their ideas into words so that the boys around 
our way could understand." 



23 



How to Speak in Public 



Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. 
Douglas 

A WRITER has said: "I heard Abraham Lincoln 
and Stephen A. Douglas. The one six feet and 
four inches in height, the other hardly five feet four. 
The one awkward to the verge of grotesqueness, the 
other as dignified as Daniel Webster; Lincoln with a 
high pitched voice, Douglas with a basso profundo; Lin- 
coln abounding in transitions, weirdly fascinating by his 
strange figure, postures and gestures, Douglas rarely de- 
parting from a dignified oratorical manner. Yet it was 
the declaration of arguments. He used no ornaments, 
was not verbose, was easily understood, possessed im- 
mense power of assertion, perfect coherence in argument, 
and wore the aspect of deep seriousness and sense of re- 
sponsibility. He appeared to advantage in private life 
and was always ready to converse upon his principles 
and plans. 

Douglas' skill and power were attained by a careful 
study of great orations of the early days of the republic 
and British Parliament. When a judge of the Supreme 
Court he familiarized himself with decisions important 
for clearness of statement and strength of argument, and 
when he first took his seat in Congress he listened criti- 
cally to the orators. He had the habit of invariably re- 
flecting upon his own speeches after delivery, to ascertain 
by what means he succeeded, or to note why he failed 
or might have made a deeper impression. 

24 



Methods of Great Orators 

Abraham Lincoln, with limited opportunities, disci- 
plined and informed his mind while his body was strength- 
ening and elongating, until intellectually and physically 
he was head and shoulders above his companions. His 
powers were developed by private arguments and off-hand 
speeches. Not, however, until he canvassed the State 
as a candidate for the Senate of the United States, with 
Stephen A. Douglas as his opponent, did his fame spread 
throughout the land. It was in his speech accepting his 
nomination that he spoke the following words, perhaps 
the most comprehensive, the most conservative, yet the 
most agitating ever uttered in the United States: 

**A house divided against itself cannot stand. I be- 
lieve this government cannot endure permanently half 
slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be 
dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall; but, I do 
expect that it will cease to be divided. It will become 
ail the one thing or all the other. Either the opponents 
of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, or its advo- 
cates will push it forward until it shall become alike law- 
ful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well 
as South." 

Roosevelt the Orator 

"Think of a sledge-hammer , a steam-roller, a slow- 
moving, stone-walling batsman;" then, ''think of a com- 
bination of all three," and you have some idea of Mr. 
Roosevelt's oratory, says ''One Who Has Heard Him," 
in the London Daily Mail. An orator must first of all 
make himself heard. Nobody ever found fault with Mn 
Roosevelt on this score, we are told. 

25 



How to Speak in Public 

He speaks slowly and very clearly. Every word, 
every syllable even, is sep-ar-ate and dis-tinct. His one 
gesture is tremendous. He raises his right arm. He 
holds it threateningly above his head. It trembles with 
emphasis. It grips the hearers tight. They watch it as 
one watches a thunder-cloud ready to burst or a great 
tree about to fall. Then with a piston-like movement 
he brings it down. The clenched right fist thuds into 
the left palm. His point is rammed home. The ten- 
sion is relaxed. 

Then, for a change — oratory mus. be well varied — 
Mr. Roosevelt will turn to humor. His features, which 
have been almost convulsed with strenuousness, relax 
and grow mild. His teeth are no longer terrible. A 
smile — almost a grin — broadens out his cheeks and jaws. 
His eyes gleam with enjoyment. Up goes his voice — 
up, up, into a falsetto. The audience lean forward not 
to miss the joke. The point comes on the high G. In 
the perfect stillness even a whisper could be heard. It 
is almost in a whisper that he ends. Then, as a roar of 
laughter checks him, he stands triumphant, smiling be- 
nevolently, watching the effect that he has made. 

His humor, which is always announced by the falset- 
to, is large and hearty, never ill-natured, never very sub- 
tle. It consists largely of dressing up familiar maxims in 
some quaint and arresting form of words. 

Those who only read Mr. Roosevelt's speeches can 
not understand their spell. "He says nothing which 
is not familiar," they complain. **What is the secret 
which compels audiences to listen to him and to come 
away loud in his praise.?" The secret is personality, 

26 



Methods of Great Orators 

^hich really means vitality, abounding, overflowing life 
and vigor, setting in motion a current of energy which it 
is impossible to resist. Mr. Roosevelt is a hypnotist. 
He ''puts the 'fluence" on every one who comes into 
touch with him. He makes an ordinary remark with 
such force of emphasis that you are carried away. 
"What a profound thought!" you murmur. "Why has 
that never occurred to me before?" Yet upon reflection 
you cannot for the life of you explain where the profund- 
ity came in. 

The following is the introduction to his address de- 
livered at Lincoln's birth-place on Feb. 12, 1909: 

"We have met here to celebrate the hundredth anni- 
versary of the birth of one of the two greatest Ameri- 
cans; of one of the two or three greatest men of the 
nineteenth century; of one cf the greatest men in the 
world's history. This rail-splitter, this boy who passed 
his ungainly youth in the dire poverty of the poorest of 
the frontier folk, whose rise was by weary and painful 
labor, lived to lead his people through the burning flames 
of a struggle from which the nation emerged, purified as 
by fire, born anew to a loftier life." 

The speaker then traced the hkeness in the charac- 
ter of the two greatest of our public men^ — Washington 
and Lincoln — stating that though they differed widely in 
externals, the Virginia landed gentleman and the Ken- 
tucky backwoodsman, they were alike in essentials, in 
the great qualities which made each able to do service to 
his nation and to all mankind such as no other man of 
his generation could or did render. 

27 



How to Speak in Public 

The following is the summing-up and ending of the 
address : 

"He lived in days that were great and terrible, when 
brother fought against brother for what each sincerely 
deemed to be the right. In a contest so grim the strong 
men who alone can carry it through are rarely able to do 
justice to the deep convictions of those with whom they 
grapple in mortal strife. At such times men see through 
a glass darkly; to only the rarest and loftiest spirits is 
vouchsafed that clear vision which gradually comes to all, 
even to the lesser, as the struggle fades into distance, and 
wounds are forgotten, and peace creeps back to the 
hearts that were hurt. But to Lincoln was given this 
supreme vision. He did not hate the man from whom 
he differed. Weakness was as foreign as wickedness to 
his strong, gentle nature; but his courage was of a qual- 
ity so high that it needed no bolstering of dark passion. 
He saw clearly that the same high qualities, the same 
courage, and willingness for self-sacrifice, and devotion 
to the right as it was given them to see the right, be- 
longed both to the men of the North and to the men of 
the South. As the years roll by, and as all of us, wher- 
ever we dwell, grow to feel an equal pride in the valor 
and self-devotion, alike of the men who wore the blue 
and the men who wore the gray, so this whole nation 
will grow to feel a peculiar sense of pride in the mightiest 
of the mighty men who mastered the mighty days; the 
lover of his country and of all mankind ; the man whose 
blood was shed for the union of his people and for the 
freedom of a race, Abraham Lincoln." 

28 



Methods of Great Orators 

Wendell Phillips was known in his day as the silver- 
tongued orator and was a master of invective. At Fan- 
euii Hall, Boston, the people began to shout 'Thiliips ! 
Phillips !" Very soon he v/as addressing the audience 
and endeavored to conciliate and pacify his hearers. 

"In all cases where great peril existed to citizens," 
he said, "it was the duty of the government to protect 
them." No sooner had he finished the sentence than a 
number of men began to hiss. 

The great orator paused a moment, and then an in- 
spired wrath took hold of him, his great eyes gleamed, 
and in a blast of irony he exclaimed : 

"Truth thrown into the cauldron of hell would make 
a noise like that." 

Wendell Phillips referred to Sargent S. Prentiss, of 
Mississippi, as the most eloquent of all the southern 
orators. Prentiss possessed a memory of boundless 
capacity. His achievements were all the more extraor- 
dinary when it is remembered that he is pitifully lam.e 
and his gait peculiarly ungraceful. His own judgment 
was that he owed more to the practice of de- 
bate than to any other form of discipline, and 
in a letter to his brother he said: "Let me par- 
ticularly recommend you to cultivate the faculty of de- 
bating; of expressing your own ideas in the best and 
most effective manner. There are thousands of men in 
the United States who exceed Henry Clay in informa- 
tion on all subjects, but his superiority consists in the 

29 



How to Speak in Public 

power and adroitness with which he brings his informa- 
tion to bear. This faculty of expression can be attained 
best in debating societies." 

Gladstone was the people's orator; he stood for the 
people and could never fawn upon royalty. His voice has 
been described as round, rolling and rich, monotonous 
indeed, but so dignified that it is forgotten in the intel- 
lectual action that the voice revealed. It rises gradually 
and you are not aware that the thunder is going to roar 
until you find yourself in the center of the storm. He 
was the great advocate of Home Rule and stood above 
when all others deserted him. In one of his speeches 
he said: 

**If the leaders withdraw, then the people will lead 
the way. That is an American idea. No aristocracy 
can really understand the people. I don't blame the 
aristocrats, they were born so. They are reared to be- 
lieve that the land is theirs, whereas it is given to all 
mankind." 

In reply to his opponents he used the following an- 
ecdote : 

*'The Liberal Unionists are a curious kind of inex- 
pressible middle quantity. Are they repenting ? I will 
answer by an anecdote. An American lady, in retrench- 
ing expenses in the household, conceived the notion of 
beginning the operation by making that part of her little 
boy's garments which is known in some parts of America 
by the euphonious and pleasant name of pants. She 
made them alike before and behind, and some relative of 
the lady asked how she succeeded. The lady said 

30 



Methods of Great Orators 

'Very nicely; but they are so made that at a short dis- 
tance off I can't tell whether Johnnie is coming home or 
going away.' Some relative of the lady must have made 
the political pants of the Liberal Unionists." 

Patrick Henry, one of the world's greatest orators, 
never wrote a line of his speeches. His early education 
was most limited. At sixteen he left, school and prepared 
himself for a lawyer by reading and studying human na- 
ture while conversing with those who frequented the 
store where he was clerking. After practicing law for a 
few years with some success he leaped into fame by a 
single speech in which his eloquence was magical. 

His speech in the first Continental Congress won for 
him the position of the foremost orator in the western 
world. In that Congress he overthrew a plan of recon- 
cilation between the mother country and the colonies 
which would have left them in the relation to each 
other that later was established between England and 
Canada. He was the only man who in debate opposed 
the scheme advocated by many of the foremost members. 
His eloquence was felt equally by the learned and un- 
learned. According to Thomas Jefferson he possessed 
practical fame, sublime imagination and an overwhelm- 
ing diction. He was also declared a Shakespeare and 
Garrick combiner. His personal appearance was unfa- 
vorable. He never had a lesson in oratory, and yet 
stands before the world as a speaker who wrought as 
overwhelming effects as were attributed to Demosthenes. 
He owed his success to practice in conversation and pub- 
lic speaking and courage to meet a crisis, and his influ- 
ence was greatly enhance^! by his high christian charac- 
ter and spotless reputation. 

31 



CHAPTER III. 

Securing the Confidence of the 
Audience 

THE BEGINNING 

THE first thing for the public speaker to do is to 
gain the confidence and sympathy of his audience. 
Under no circumstances is he to antagonize or preju- 
dice his audience against him in the beginning. There 
are many methods available for public speakers by means 
of which his audience may be made suggestible and un- 
critical and accept almost any conclusion which is pre- 
sented to them. 

A favorite method is to begin by telling a humorous 
story bearing upon the subject, or an apt quotation. 
Let the story be fairly well told and it will not fail to 
capture an audience. The introduction if rightly pre- 
pared and given will do much to win an audience at the 
very beginning and secure to the speaker sympathetic 
attention and confidence. A careful study of the fol- 
lowing introductions, many of them taken from orator- 
ical masterpieces, will reveal the practice of successful 
speakers. 

There are some speakers who by their presence 
beget confidence, and others lack this power, and are 
never able to acquire it. The following introductions 
of some of the great orators reveal a studied attempt on 
the part of the speaker to win the confidence of his 
audience before the address is revealed. 

32 



Methods of Great Orators 

William Jennings Bryan, in the following introduc- 
tion to one of his most famous speeches, secures the 
confidence of his audience at the very beginning and 
dissipates all suspicion: 

"I would be presumptuous, indeed, to present my- 
self against the distinguished gentleman to whom you 
have listened if this were a mere measuring of abilities; 
but this is not a contest between persons. The hum- 
blest citizen in all the land, when clad in the armor of a 
righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error. 
I come to you to speak in defense of a cause as holy as 
the cause of liberty — the cause of humanity." 

In like manner Mark Antony banished suspicion and 
secured the confidence of the Roman populace: 

''I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts: 
I am no orator, as Brutus is. 
But, as you know me all, a plain, blunt man, 
That love my friend; and that they know full well 
That gave me public leave to speak of him. 
For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, 
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech. 
To stir men's blood: I only speak right on: 
I tell you that, which you yourself do know. 
Show you sweet Csesar's wounds, poor, poor, dumb 

mouths 
And bid them speak for me; but were I Brutus," 

etc. 

Daniel Webster's deliberative oration, **In Reply to 
Hayne," begins with this beautiful allusion: **When the 

33 



How to Speak in Public 

mariner has been tossed for many days in thick weather 
and on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of 
the first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the 
sun, to take his latitude and ascertain how far the ele- 
ments have driven him from his true course." 

The orator then applies the illustration to the debate 
upon which he has entered. 

Henry W. Grady began his great after-dinner oration 
on "The New South" by making a quotation: 

"'There was a South of slavery and secession — that 
South is dead. There is a South of union and freedom 
— that South, thank God, is living, breathing, growing 
every hour.* These words, delivered from the immortal 
lips of Benjamin H. Hill, at Tammany Hall, in 1866, 
true then, and truer now, 1 shall make my text 
to-night." 

Judge Jeremiah S. Black prefaced his forensic ora- 
tion on "The Right to Trial by Jury" with these words: 

"May it please your Honors: I am not afraid that 
you will underrate the importance of this case. It con- 
cerns the rights of the whole people. Such questions 
have generally been settled by arms. But since the 
beginning of the world no battle has ever been lost or 
won upon which the liberties of a nation were so dis- 
tinctly staked as they are upon the results of this argu- 
ment. The pen that writes the judgment of the court 
will be mightier for good or for evil than any sword that 
ever was wielded by mortal man." 

34 



Methods of Great Orators 

A popular speaker has said: "Never show annoyance 
before an audience. Preachers have lost their pulpits, 
lavt^yers their cases, and lecturers their second invitation 
in consequence of speaking unadvisedly. 'Little boy,* 
said the preacher, *if you don't stop see-sav^^ing your 
head I'll come down there and cut it off.' He wished 
one minute after, and has wished all his hfe since, that 
he had allowed the youngster to see-saw to his head's 
content. Better that the boy should kill the sermon 
than the preacher should kill himself. The teeth of 
one lecturer were set on edge by the interruptions of an 
inebriated hearer, and the audience applauded the lec- 
turer. But the lecturer, not content with his victory, 
alluded again and still again to the interruption long 
after it had ceased, and the audience turned against the 
lecturer, who was finally hissed. Never put yourself in 
the wrong with an audience. It has every advantage of 
you. It has many heads to your one. Keep your audi- 
ence on your side in every case of speaker vs. some one 
hearer. This is where the speaker needs self-restraint 
and tact." 



35 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Peroration: The Climax: 
The Closing 

THE closing of the speech, brief though it be, fur- 
nishes an opportunity for the most effective oratory. 
As final impressions remain longest in the mind, the 
chmax should consist of a summary of the main points, 
an emphasis of the central truth, an appeal to the emo- 
tions, a call to action. The following beginning and 
climax of Wendell Phillips in his popular lecture on 
Toussaint L'Ouverture is an excellent example for 
pupils to copy: 

**I have been requested to offer you a sketch of one 
of the most remarkable men of the last generation, the 
great Toussaint L'Ouverture. My sketch is at once a 
biography and an argument — a biography of a negro 
statesman and soldier, and an argument in behalf of the 
race from v^hich he sprang. 

"If I were to tell you the story of Napoleon, I 
should take it from the lips of Frenchmen, who find no 
language rich enough to paint the great captain of the 
nineteenth century. Were I to tell you the story of 
Washington, I should take it from your hearts,— you, 
who think no marble white enough on which to carve 
the name of the Father of his country. But I am to 
tell you the story of a negro, Toussaint L'Ouverture, 

36 



Methods of Great Orators 

Wi>p has left hardly one written line. I am lo glean it 
from the reluctant testimony of his enemies, men who 
despised him because he was a negro and a slave, hated 
him because he had beaten them in battle," 

The following summing up, the climax, the closing 
of the great oration, has seldom been surpassed, and will 
serve as a splendid model for all speakers: 

"I would call him Napoleon, but Napoleon made 
his way to empire over broken oaths and through a sea 
of blood. This man never broke his word. I would 
call him Cromwell, but Cromwell was only a soldier, 
and the State he founded went down with him into his 
grave. I would call him Washington, but the great 
Virginian held slaves. This man risked his empire 
rather than permit the slave-trade in the humblest vil- 
lage of his dominions. 

"You think me a fanatic, for you read history, not 
with your eyes but with your prejudices. But fifty 
years hence, when Truth gets a hearing, the Muse of 
history will put Fhocion for the Greek, Brutus for the 
Roman, Hampden for England, Fayette for France, 
choose Washington as the bright consummate flower 
of our earlier civilization, then, dipping her pen in 
the sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them 
all, the name of the soldier, the statesman, the 
martyr, TouiSSAiNT L'OuvERTURS." 

Senator Thurston's great oration, a "Plea for Cuba," 
was delivered in the United States Senate on March 24, 
1898. Mrs. Thurston died in Cuba. As a dying request 

37 



How to Speak in Public 

she urged her husband, who was investigating affairs in 
the island, to do his utmost to induce the United States 
to intervene. Hence this oration. 

In the following climax and peroration of this elo- 
quent plea the speaker's voice rang out like a battle-cry, 
emphasizing the one word ''Force" in every possible way: 

*Mr. President, there is only one action possible; that 
is, intervention for the independence of Cuba. But we 
cannot intervene and save Cuba without the exercise 
of force, and force means war; war means blood. But 
it will be God's force. When has a battle for humanity 
and liberty ever been won except by force? What bar- 
ricade of wrong, injustice, and oppression has ever been 
carried except by force? 

* Force compelled the signature of unwilling royalty 
to the great Magna Charta; force put Hfe into the Dec- 
laration of Independence and made effective the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation; force beat with naked hands 
upon the iron gateway of the Bastile and made reprisal 
in one awful hour for centuries of kingly crime; force 
waved the flag of revolution over Bunker Hill and 
marked the snows of Valley Forge with blood-stained 
feet; force held the broken line of Shiloh, climbed the 
flame-swept hill at Chattanooga, and stormed the clouds 
on Lookout Heights; force marched with Sherman to 
the sea, rode with Sheridan in the valley of the Shenan- 
doah, and gave Grant victory at Appomattox; force 
saved the Union, kept the stars in the flag, made "nig- 
gers" men. The time for God's force has come again. 
Let the impassioned hps of American patriots once more 
take up the song — 

38 



Methods of Great Orators 

'In the beauty of the Hlies, Christ was born across 

the sea, 
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you 

and me; 
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make 

men free, 
While God is marching on.' 

* 'Others may hesitate, others may procrastinate, 
others may plead for further diplomatic negotiation, 
which means delay; but for me, I am ready to act now, 
and for my action I am ready to answer to my con- 
science, my country, and my God." 

The following is the climax and closing of Watter- 
son's great oration on Abraham Lincoln: 

"I look into the crystal globe that, slowly turning, 
reveals the story of the life of Abraham Lincoln, and I 
see a httle heart-broken boy, weeping by the out- 
stretched form of a dead mother, then bravely, nobly 
trudging a hundred miles to obtain her Christian burial. 
I see this motherless lad growing to manhood amid 
scenes that seem to lead to nothing but abasement; no 
teachers; no books; no chart except his own untutored 
mind; no compass except his own undisciplined will; no 
hght save light from heaven; yet, like the caravel of 
Columbus, struggling on and on through the trough of 
the sea, always toward the destined land. I see the 
full-grown man, stalwart and brave, an athlete in 
activity of movement and strength of limb, yet vexed 
by weird dreams and visions of Hfe, of love, of reHgion, 

39 



How to Speak in Public 

sometimes verging on despair. I see the mind, grown 
as robust as the body, throw off these phantoms of the 
imagination and give itself wholly to the practical uses 
of this work-a-day world; the rearing of children; the 
earning of bread; the multiplied duties of the husband, 
the father, and the citizen. I see the party leader, self- 
confident in conscious rectitude; original, because it was 
not his nature to follow; potent, because he was fearless, 
pursuing his convictions with earnest zeal, and urging 
them upon his fellows with the resources of an oratory 
which was hardly more impressive than it was many- 
sided. 

"And, last scene of all, that ends this strange, event- 
ful history, I see him lying dead there in the capitol of 
the nation, to which he had rendered *thc last full 
measure of his devotion,' the flag of his country 
wrapped about him, the world in mourning, and, ask- 
ing myself, how could any man have hated that man, I 
ask you, how can any man refuse his homage to his 
memory? Surely, he was one of God's elect; not in 
any sense a creature of circumstance or accident. Re- 
curring to the doctrine of inspiration, I say again and 
again, he was inspired of God, and I cannot see how 
any one who believes in that doctrine can regard him as 
anything else." 

Then tenderly the great orator finished his work of 
love. While many in the audience were in tears and 
the rest hushed to silence, his great voice turned to 
pathos, he portrayed the martyred Lincoln's translation 
back to God: 

40 



Methods of Great Orators 

**Born — as — lowly — as — the — son of God, in a 
hovel,'* he said slowly; "of what ancestry we know 
not and care not; reared in penury, squalor, with no 
gleam of light or fair surroundings; without graces, 
actual or acquired; without name or fame or official 
training; it was reserved for this strange being, late in 
life, to be snatched from obscurity, raised to supreme 
command at a supreme moment, and intrusted with the 
destiny of a nation. 

* 'Where did Shakespeare get his genius? Where 
did Mozart get his music? Whose hand smote the lyre 
of the Scottish plowman and stayed the life of the 
German priest? God, God, and God alone; and as 
surely as these were raised up by God, inspired by God 
was Abraham Lincoln; and a thousand years hence, no 
drama, no tragedy, no epic poem will be filled with 
greater wonder, or be followed by mankind with deeper 
feeling, than that which telb the story of his life and 
death.*' 



41 



CHAPTER V. 

The Value of Repetition and 
Suiiesiion 

MR. DOOLEY expressed the value of repetition and 
suggestion when he wrote: **I belave annything 
at all, if ye only tell it to me often enough.'* 

In public speaking and conversation there are many 
ideas which must be repeated over and over again before 
they obtain the proper maximum effect. 

This has already been illustrated in the climax of 
Senator Thurston's oration, **A Plea for Cuba," where 
the repetition of the word "force " added greatly to the 
emphasis of the idea. 

Of this character is Webster's celebrated sentence, 
the climax of his great speech on "American Institutions." 

"Our government can stand trial, it can stand as- 
sault, it can stand adversity, it can stand persecutions, it 
can stand everything but the weakness of our own 
strength, it can stand everything but disorganization, 
disunion and nullification." 

The reiteration of the same word gives strength and 
consistency to the above sentence, and the word "stand" 
repeated again and again, comes at last to be like the 
blows of a hammer, liveting attention to the subject. 

42 



Methods of Great Orators 

The following letter written by General Putnam to 
Sir Henry Clinton in 1777, is a wonderful example of 
terseness and repetition: 

Edmund Palmer, an officer in the enemy's service, 
was taken as a spy lurking within our lines. He has 
been tried as a spy, condemned as a spy, and shall be 
executed as a spy, and the flag is ordered to depart im- 
mediately. Israel Putnam. 

P. S.— He has accordingly been executed. 

The last paragraph of the first inaugural of President 
Lincoln, wherein is concentrated faith, hope, love and 
charity for all, expressive of the great heart of the great- 
est of Americans, will fitly close this chapter. 

It was the fourth of March, 1861. The South was 
already arrayed in arms against the government. Though 
saddened and depressed by the situation of brother ar- 
rayed against brother, Lincoln never faltered or relaxed 
his faith in the ultimate triumph of right and union, and 
closing in the following prophetic words that have no 
equal in our literature : 

**I am loath to close. We are not enemies but friends. 
We must not be enemies. Though passion may have 
strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The 
mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle- 
field and patriotic grave to every living heart and hearth- 
stone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus 
of Union, when again touched, as they surely will be, 
by the better angels of our nature.' ' 



43 



CHAPTER VI. 

How to Make Speeches That Will 
Have Effect 

By Elmer E. Rogers, Member of the Chicago Bar 

THE general public is quite wrong in its estimate of 
the requirements for a career in successful oratory. 
On the discovery of oratorical talent, or having decided 
to make an orator of yourself, commence excavating for 
a good foundation. I endorse elocutionary training. 
The most eminent orators and actors stimulate their 
emotional nature by daily drill in vocal exercises. A 
good practice is the repeating of the alphabet and its var- 
ious sounds in different tones, pitch and force. Con- 
stant practice clears and strengthens the vocal powders, 
as observed in new^sboys, train callers and auctioneers. 
Disguise yourself and be a newsboy for a few days. Great 
actors and orators drill days and weeks on single words 
and sentences. The voice is susceptible of achieving 
marvelous results. In the voice is much of the orator's 
power. 

Gesture the Universal Lan^ua^e 

Gesture is the only universal language; combined with 
the language of countenance, it is understood by the en- 
tire world, for it is the language of nature. Prepare a 
few sentences with appropriate gestures. To thrill an 

44 



How to Make Effective Speeches 

audience you must arrange sentences and accompanying 
gestures so that both at the same time shall reach the 
climax in your eloquence. 

On stepping to the front of the platform have a full 
breath as you greet your audience; surely never meet it 
vi^ith all your batteriss run out. Physical attitude induces 
psychic conditions; and being a sort of dynamic battery, 
a strong, vigorous appearance is a valuable asset in the 
successful orator. You are to exercise strong w^ill power 
and to keep in electrical sympathy with your audience. 

Some Speakers' **Don'ts and Dos" 

Do not forget that public speaking is good conversa- 
tion; don't yell, and, therefore, talk over the heads of 
your auditors; do not talk at them, but to them. When 
practicable, a good idea is to scan the faces of your hear- 
ers, beginning at the front on your left and proceeding 
from left to right, back and forth, until you have ob- 
served the occupant of the last seat on your right in the 
rear of your audience. I have often thought that with 
developed oratorical talent and literary skill, what a mag- 
nificent orator would be a world's champion prize fighter. 

To drink water during a speech is one sign of the in- 
experienced speaker. Once in a plea for the life of a 
human being I talked for three hours (to the disinterested 
audience it must have seemed like six hours), and I never 
partook of a sup of water durinor the speech. Water 
taken while speaking irritates the throat. For relieving 
hoarseness take a crumb of muriate of ammonia. 

It is easier to talk to a large audience than to a small 
one. Tact and resourcefulness are gained by speaking 

45 



How to Speak in Public 

on different topics and before audiences of varying sizes. 
Speeches are of many kinds, and each, Hke an essay, aims 
for the accomplishment of a particular object. "Speech 
is to persuade, to convert, to compel." 

The most difficult of all oratory is the campaign politi- 
cal speech, and he on w^hom the i.'oliticians agree as a 
first-class "spellbinder" may by preparation put up a 
good speech on any topic. 

Outdoor speaking is perplexing, as in the attempt to 
reach all hearers the speaker is hable to pitch his voice 
too high, which then does not carry so v^^ell as a more 
natural tone. If convenient speak toward the noise or 
music. 

Brevity a Winning Qualify 

The less a speaker knows the longer it takes him to 
say it; therefore, cut your speeches short. Cicero says 
"brevity is a great praise of eloquence." The audience 
frequently believes it is doing the speaker an inestimable 
favor by "sitting down there" and spending its precious 
time, and all for the purpose of giving the "speaker" a 
chance, at its expense, to make (or lose?) a "reputation." 
Some audiences ought to be paid for their time. 

Where a meeting is to be addressed by several speak- 
ers arrange the program so as to avoid overlapping one 
another's time. Tb'^ audience surely would vote the 
president, or chairman, a success. I have observed when 
it was not half so insulting to tell the speaker to "sit 
down" as it was insulting to his audience to grin and 
bear the speaker's prolix harangue. 

46 



How to Make Effective Speeches 
Many "Bi^" Men Poor Orators 

Because a man has distinguished himself in business 
or in politics is no sign that he is able to make a speech. 
I have seen a most prominent business man of one of our 
largest cities, a candidate for high political ofFice, become 
so confused in a speech before a large audience — he was 
reading it, too — that he actually danced around on the 
platform in his appeal for votes, and, unable to endure 
the merriment of the audience any longer, he quit, sat 
down, and put on his hat in the house, which, to his 
audience, was the most amusing incident in his whole 
speech, and the only part the audience remembered. 

If, inexperienced, you may hire some one to write 
your addresses for you. Many noted people do so, either 
from want of Hterary skill or the time to do it themselves. 
I recall a one time governor who paid $75 each for his 
speeches. It is said that Ex-President Roosevelt and Em- 
peror William, of Germany, are among the few who do 
their own literary work. It is an insult to an audience 
to be obliged to listen to a "speech" being read. The 
true orator scarcely will do so. 

Public Speaking a Profession 

Public speaking is a profession. Animal food pro- 
motes eloquence, and the orator ought to have a good 
sleep just before his appearance to speak. No one ex- 
cept a political candidate is obliged to shake hands and 
accept hospitality, so avoid this physical drain before 
^?eaking. 

The orator of to-day must be a student, reader, think- 
er and writer; in olden times the orator was a dissemina- 

47 



How to Speak in Public 

tor of knowledge, but now the public itself is quite well 
informed. The best speeches and orations of all ages 
are the result of toil. True, the man, the time, and the 
occasion contributed much toward the orator's success. 
The budding orator is urged to study the speeches and 
the ways and manner of the best and most distinguished 
speakers and orators. 

Constantly gather material for your speeches. Read, 
think, write; learn all you can, but tell your wisdom not 
in private conversation, but to audiences. Stories, if not 
quite original, when used in a speech, are liable to be 
ineffective. Practice until you are able to make a speech 
perfected in architectural beauty. Toil will accomplish 
miracles in the consummate orator. A great advantage 
is that the graceful, vigorous diction of the finished ora- 
tor becomes of inestimable service in any other line of liter- 
ary endeavor. Oratory is a book, essay, or speech concen- 
trated in a few great thoughts clothed in simple language. 

Oratory Superior to Professions 

Oratory is superior to the learned professions as rep- 
resented exclusively in law, medicine and theology, for 
oratory is the pure diamond of thought gleaned from the 
wisdom of these professions. What theology, law, or 
medicine could have exercised the charm and swayed the 
people of our revolutionary times as did that crystallized 
expression from the eloquent lips of Orator Patrick 
Henry: "Give me liberty, or give me death!" 

For healthy development the orator needs the thrill 
of an audience, and audiences are inspired by the mag- 
netic thrill from the genuine orator. 

I close with one thought from Cicero: "It is glorious 
to excel men in that which men excel all other animals.** 

48 



CHAPTER VII. 

How to be Heard When Speakinfi 
in Public 

AS you rise to speak, cast your eyes easily over the 
audience for a few seconds, then fix them upon 
the farthest auditors directly in front of you, and begin 
to speak in a pleasant tone of voice and with an easy nat- 
uralness of manner. 

2. Regulate the "pitch" and "force" of voice by 
actually talking to your farthest auditors. The intro- 
ductory matter should be delivered as if conversing with 
people at that distance. At the opening of your address 
you do not need to attempt anything more than to 
make the most distant hsteners hear you distinctly, and 
without effort on their part. In order to do this — 

3. Enunciate deliberately: that is, take sufficient 
time to utter every syllable that a correct standard of 
pronunciation demands should be enunciated. Be espec- 
ially careful to "take time" during the delivery of the 
first half-dozen sentences. The characteristic of good 
speaking in the introductory matter is dehberateness. 
Much of your success will depend upon starting right. 

4. As your earnestness of manner increases, still be 
careful to enunciate firmly and with the necessary de- 
liberation to secure perfect syllabication. Keep the 
rights ot the farthest auditors in mind throughout the 
address. If they hear you, all will hear. Be especially 
mindful of the distinct utterance of the closing words of 
sentences. Speakers often lower the pitch, diminish 
the force, and enunciate so rapidly as to become indie- 

49 



How to Speak in Public 

tinct and nearly inaudible. Secure proportion and 
cadence in the vocal treatment of the close of a sen- 
tence, but without sacrificing distinctness. 

5. Do not be troubled about the quality of tone 
further than to speak in a pleasing manner. 

6. As to style: be natural; be yourself at your best; 
that is, talk to the people in your own way, only with the 
increased earnestness that arises from your deep interest 
in the subject, and your desire to benefit your audience; 
and with the effect which comes from the reflex influence 
of the sympathetic attention of the audience upon your 
feelings. The perfection of public speaking is the per- 
fection of talking to people earnestly. It is the tone and 
manner of good conversation raised to its highest power. 
An earnest colloquial style will be easily heard, and you 
will not degenerate into screaming with its consequent 
unpleasantness and fatigue of voice. 

7. Avoid hurry in speaking. In your most animated 
passages do not speak so rapidly as to injure good syllabi- 
cation, or mar the clear and melodious communication 
of ideas. 

8. Rest all you can before speaking. Compose the 
nerves. If you speak in the evening, avoid getting phys- 
ically tired during the day. Take a good nap in the aft- 
ernoon. Take a cup of hot weak tea just before speak- 
ing, if it is possible to do so. This is desirable, though 
not essential. 

9. Banish mental anxiety so far as you can. Do 
not fear that you will not be heard. Prepare yourself 
thoroughly and you will not fail. Be self-possessed. 
Self-possession depends ch'>fly upon thorough prepara- 
tion and a proper amount of rest. If you cannot be self* 
possessed, be as self-possessed as you can. 

Prof. J. W. Churchill, 
50 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Debating 

DEBATING is excellent training. It teaches one to 
think quickly and logically, not to be afraid of an 
audience, and is undoubtedly the best of all training in 
public speaking. Not only are these powers to be 
gained by the practice of debating, but the debater 
who is accustomed to speaking will carry the same clear- 
ness of thought, confidence and positiveness of speech 
into business and social life, where he is sure to excel. 

Daniel Webster, when asked the secret of his 
genius, repHed: ''There is no great secret. I simply 
keep my mind on my work. When a debate is before 
me I study the question in all its aspects. I think of it, 
dream about it. Day and night it is before me. The 
final effort I make people are pleased to call genius:" 

It is an excellent plan to begin your debate by 
saying: '*It is with great interest I have hstened to the 
eloquent remarks of the gentleman who preceded me, 
and I fully agree with him as to," etc., etc. ''But how, 
on some other points, he could go so far away from the 
real facts at issue, I cannot at all understand." Then 
proceed with your argument to point out how far from 
the facts your opponent is. 

The following interesting and instructive article on 
"Public Speaking in American Colleges" will repay care- 
ful reading. The author, Mr. Byron V. Kanaley, is 
not only a most interesting speaker, but has given the 
subject careful attention and study, as will be noted by 
the fact that he was leader of the Notre Dame Uni~ 
versty victorious teams for four years and President 
Harvard University Debating Association for several years. 

51 



Public Speaking and Debating in 
American Golledes 

By Byron V. Kanaley 

A. B. Notre Dame '04 
LLB. Harvard '07 

[Leader of Notre Dame's victorious debating teams for four years; mcmbei of 
Harvard University debating team and Coach '06-'07 Harvard class teams, and Presi- 
dent '05-'06 Harvard debating association. Mr. Kanaley at present is a member of 
the mortgage banking firm of Cooper, Kanaley & Co., Chicaso.] 

THE American College no longer regards public 
speaking as a byplay but as a part of the serious 
work of a higher institution of learning. A generation 
ago the annual intercollegiate debate was like the old- 
fashioned spelling bee — there was a little hurried prepara- 
tion and then a sort of pitched battle of wits. 

Today, every detail of a public speaking contest, of 
which debating is the chief example, is gone over with 
extreme care. Even the question itself for debate is 
chosen after great deliberation, since the college pro- 
posing the question knows that by the rules of the game 
the opposing school will have the choice of sides; and so 
the form and wording of the question are most im- 
portant to the end that the side left will be debatable. 
I have known a week of earnest consideration to be 
given whether the proposition should be offered in the 
affirmative or the negative form. 

Sides being chosen, the real work of preparation 
begins. At the two American universities, where public 
speaking as a serious business probably has reached its 

52 



Debating in American Colleges 

highest development, namely, Notre Dame and Harvard, 
when debating is the thing in hand, the Hbraries are 
ransacked for material bearing on the question and the 
result indexed for ready use. About three weeks is 
given for ''reading up" and then the trial debates begin. 
Ten minutes is allowed each contestant in which to 
talk on either side of the question he chooses. A 
gradual "weeding-out" is gone through until six men 
survive, three of whom compose the "Varsity" and 
three the ''Scrubs." Daily debates take place between 
these two teams for perhaps six weeks, and then comes 
the big contest with the rival college. 

The methods pursued at Notre Dame and at Har- 
vard differ radically only in one respect. At Notre Dame 
great attention is paid to polish and finish in the speaker. 
As an aid in attaining this, the two teams in final prep- 
aration for the intercollegiate contest always remain on 
the same respective sides of the question, the Varsity on 
the side it will have in the big debate. At Harvard, no 
man knows on any particular day which side of the 
question he is to talk on. As a result. Harvard pro- 
duces a team which can talk equally well on either side 
of the question, while Notre Dame puts a team on the 
platform that knozvs all about both sides but which can 
talk best on their own chosen side. Harvard leaves the 
debate giving an impression of wide knowledge of the 
whole question. Notre Dame leaves the debate giving 
the impression she knows fairly well the whole question 
and all about her side of the question — and leaves the 
hall with the decision. Notre Dame's method has 
gained her fifteen victories and but one defeat in twelve 
years. 

53 



How to Speak in Public 

In so brief an article as this, it is possible to give but 
the merest outline of the qualities necessary for success 
in public speaking in general and debating in particular. 

Earnestness probably has first place. If you do not 
believe what you say, and say it as though you believed 
it, your audience v«^ill not be convinced — much less, 
three hard-headed judges. 

Snap and terseness are absolutely essential. In the 
first place you are extremely limited as to time, and 
again there are five other men beside you who are there 
for a hearing and if you wish to emerge from the herd 
and be remembered by a set of tired judges, your words 
have got to have **go" to them. 

Readiness in thinking on one's feet often turns 
probable defeat into victory. I recollect a debate on 
Football between Yale and Harvard. A Harvard de- 
bater had spent most of his allotted time defending 
football as a college sport on the ground that football 
was analagous to war in that it instilled courage, obe- 
dience to discipline, the spirit of do or die to the last 
ditch, etc., etc., and he finished with a splendid and 
stirring defense of the game on purely patriotic grounds. 
He was followed by a Yale man who could think on his 
feet. The Yale man quietly remarked as he advanced 
to the front of the platform: '*Yes, ladies and gentle- 
men, football is like war: a great many men have died 
in both." The audience burst into laughter and ap- 
plause, and then he went on with his set speech, show- 
ing the frightful list of dead and maimed in the history 
of the sport. 

A highly cultivated and tenacious memory is abso- 
54 



Debating in American Colleges 

lutely essential for success in public speaking and par- 
ticularly in debate. No one knows at what instant he may 
have to marshall facts or figures from hitherto dormant 
corners of his brain to meet some sudden and unex- 
pected turn in the argument. 

And lastly, as first, earnestness. This with the 
others wins. This without the others sometimes. The 
others without earnestness never. 

So, be terse, be snappy, be agile of mind and sure in 
memory, be thorough in preparation, and in deadly 
earnest, that the judges or your audience may be of 
favoring mind and decision for your cause. 



55 



PART II. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Shakespeare 

IT is very essential that the public speaker should have 
a know^ledge of human character. No one can hope 
for success in any calling to-day without this knowledge 
of human nature. 

For a knowledge of history Shakespeare's historical 
dramas give history in a vital and attractive form. His 
portrayal of many of the characters of ancient times, as 
Caesar, Brutus, Coriolanus and others, is exceedingly 
vivid. In English history our debt to Shakespeare is still 
greater. Carlyle said: ''Nearly all the English history 
that I know I learned from Shakespeare." 

For training in expression, the art of speaking, writ- 
ing, literature and in business, to see clearly and to see 
the whole, Shakespeare is a model of clearness. He 
uses a larger vocabulary than any other writer. 

For culture implying growth, the unfolding of the 
heart and mind that comes from contact with what is 
best, no one can commune with Shakespeare's charac- 
ters and think Shakespeare's thoughts after him without 
receiving an access of culture. It is always best before 
beginning to study an author to know something about 

57 



How to Speak in Public 

his personality, his life. We are far more interested in 
a work written by a friend than a stranger. You imag- 
ine you hear him speaking and you read his pages with 
far more pleasure and intelligence. With this end in 
view the following brief synopsis of Shakespeare's life 
is divided into seven periods, the important events cap- 
italized so that the pupil can easily form a chain and 
memorize the same by the Dickson Method of Memory. 

SHAKESPEARE 

I. Who he Was — When and Where he Lived — 
Parents — Station in Life—Friends. 

WM. SHAKESPEARE, the most famous name in 
Enghsh literature, was born APRIL 23, 1564, in the 
little town of STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, WAR- 
WICKSHIRE COUNTY, ENGLAND. His father, 
JOHN SHAKESPEARE, a merchant and one of the 
mayors of Stratford, had married an heiress, MARY 
ARDEN, whose family had figured in the courtly and 
warlike annals of the past, and thus m the veins of the 
great poet and dramatist of humanity ran the blood 
inherited from both the aristocratic and popular portion 
of the community. He was married to ANNE HATH- 
AWAY when eighteen years old, and three years after- 
wards left his native place for LONDON, where he 
became successively actor, author and dramatist, and 
one of the proprietors of the Globe Theatre. BEN 
JOHNSON was his intimate friend, and he had the 
personal acquaintance of QUEEN ELIZABETH, 
JAMES I., and LORD SOUTHAMPTON, to 

58 



Shakespeare 

whom he dedicated his first literary work, the poem 
VENUS AND ADONIS, pubhshed in 1593, and who 
is said to have expressed his admiration for the worth 
and genius of the poet by making him the princely gift 
of a thousand pounds. Through succeeding years his 
prosperity and fame increased and he DIED in his 
native place on the anniversary of his birth, APRIL 23, 
1616, in the 52nd year of his age. 

II. The England of Shakespeare's Youth. 

2. The development of Shakespeare's genius was 
largely dependent upon his surroundings. He was born 
and lived for twenty years at STRATFORD-UPON- 
AVON, and it is certain that all the physical and moral 
influences of that picturesque and richly stored midland 
district of England melted as years went by into the full 
current of his blood, became, indeed, the very breath of 
life his expanding spirit breathed. Stratford derived its 
name from the ford where the road or street from Lon- 
don through Oxford to Birmingham crossed the Avon 
at the point of the stone bridge built before Shakespeare 
was born, still spans the stream. 

WARWICKSHIRE was known in the poet's own 
day as the heart of England. This expression was sug- 
gested by the central situation of the county, being 
about equidistant from the eastern, western and south- 
ern shores of the Island. It was the middle shire of the 
Midlands, where the two great Roman roads crossing 
Britain from north to south and east to west met. 

It will readily be seen that from its historical, roman- 
59 



How to Speak in Public 

tic and legendary interest Warwickshire was a fitting 
region for the birth and education of a great national 
poet, historian and dramatist. Warwickshire was also 
prominent in the history of the English drama. COV- 
ENTRY was one of the places where the Mediaeval 
plays were kept up even to Shakespeare's own day, and 
the youthful Shakespeare no doubt was an eye-witness to 
the very last of these MIRACLE PLAYS, performed 
for centuries by the grey friars in their great monasteries. 
This is evident from the many allusions in his plays to 
Herod, blustering about the stage, to the Devil, Ter- 
magant, and other characters from these old miracle 
plays. 

in. Early Education — Trials and Difficulties. 

3. We first find the youthful Shakespeare at the 
free grammar school of Stratford, where, as far as is 
known, he received the elements of an English training 
with some admixture of Latin, and possibly French and 
Italian. Tradition has it that he made a partial study 
and practice of law, and even played the role of a vil- 
lage schoolmaster. Early in his teens the financial stress 
under which his father was suffering forced him from 
school to the more practical concerns of life. His mar- 
riage to Anne Hathaway in his eighteenth year was a 
venturesome undertaking, and in order to better his con- 
dition, a few years after his marriage he made his plans 
for removal to London. 

IV. How HE Reached Fame. 

4. Passing over the legendary history of the great 
dramatist, we find him in LONDON from 1585 to 

60 



Shakespeare 

1612, varied with frequent visits to his rural home in 
Stratford. Very probably his first appearance in Lon- 
don was as an ACTOR, and according to tradition he 
afterwards acted the ghost in ** Hamlet," and Old Adam 
in *'As You Like It." His advice through Hamlet to 
the players, *'to hold the mirror up to nature," etc., 
clearly shows that he had the right view as to the dra- 
matic art, and the function of the actor. His comrade, 
Richard Burbage, was the first masterly actor of the 
great tragic characters, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear 
and Othello, and was no doubt coached in those roles 
by the great master. 

Shakespeare was a most prohfic dramatist, being the 
author and adapter of thirty-seven plays. If all his 
PLAYS were staged at the same time it would require 
seven hundred actors to play the different roles, no two 
of which are alike. In this vast throng would be found 
ancient Greeks, Romans, Britains, Kings, Queens, 
Dukes, Duchesses, Lords, Ladies, Soldiers, Sailors, 
Doctors, Lawyers, Merchants, Sages and Clowns, 
Priests and Cutthroats, Age and Infancy, learned Ma- 
gicians and degraded Calibans, all ages and conditions 
of men. He not only peopled the earth, but the air 
and sea as well. In Macbeth witches and hags hover 
through the fog and filthy air. In the Tempest, Ariel 
and the fairies follow the sunshine around the earth. 
All elf-land is revealed in the depths of a Midsummer 
Night's Dream. So we can see there is a Shakespeare 
of the heaven as well as of the earth. 



61 



How to Speak in Public 

V. What Shakespeare has Taught Us — The 

Lesson of His Life. 

5. Shakespeare has taught us that the GOOD 
LAWS OF THIS WORLD ARE STRICT AND 
INEXORABLE. He is stern and exact, for he resolves 
to see facts on both sides, but he is at the same time 
infinitely tolerant because he perceives the infinite 
variety of human character and can enter into sympathy 
with each. He knows that I am not a law for you, nor 
are you a law for me. Each individual is a single, sep- 
arate entity, possessing all the rights of an individual. 
But over and above each and all are the everlasting laws 
without which this "goodly frame, the earth, and its 
brave o'er-hanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted 
with golden fire, would be a chaos, a fcul and pestilent 
congregation of vapors." The two principal rules and 
lessons of life which George EHot gave to a young 
friend, were first, ''BE ACCURATE," and second, 
''My dear child, the great lesson of life is 'TOLER- 
ANCE'." Both these lessons, liberally taught, are also 
the lessons of Shakespeare. 

VI. End of Life. 

6. Shakespeare returned to his native place, Strat- 
ford-upon-Avon, in 1612, and it is a strange coincidence 
in the great dramatist's career that when he left London 
the local theatres were closed by law, players being paid 
not to perform. 



62 



How to Speak in Public 

He passed away April 23, 1616, the anniversary of 
his birth, at the age of 52, a man, as Mrs. Browning 
writes in her "Visions of Poets": 

"On whose forehead cHmb the crowns of the world." 

He was buried in the chancel of Trinity Church, 
Stratford-upon-Avon. The inscription on his tomb is of 
singular import: 

"Good friend for Jesus* sake forbear, 
To dig the dust enclosed here; 
Blessed be the man that spares these stones, 
And curst be he that moves my bones.'* 

VII. How Esteemed and Why. 

7. Of all authors Shakespeare must be known per- 
sonally, must be communed with in secret by the reader 
himself, must be asked to reveal himself, if so he may 
in some adequate way understand what God did for the 
English people and the world when he gave them a man 
and a poet of such superhuman endowment. Although 
it is three hundred years since his genius attained to its 
full development, yet Europe is still busy with him as 
though with a contemporary. His dramas are acted and 
read wherever civilization extends, and there will never 
come a time when they will cease to move the heart, or 
irradiate the imagination of the world. 



63 



CHAPTER X. 
The Study of Shakespeare 

THE purpose of the drama is to teach a complete 
knowledge of human character. Suppose a man 
to have all other kinds of knowledge under the sun; let 
him possess all the bearing and grace of an angel, and 
the golden thoughts and musical words of a poet, and 
yet without this knowledge of human nature he would 
be the veriest fool. He would be at once a laughing 
stock and nuisance because he could not conduct him- 
self properly before his fellow man. Next to the knowl- 
edge of God, indeed, the knowledge of human charac- 
ter is most important. "Know thyself" was the maxim 
of the old Greek philosophy. *' Know thyself and all 
thy fellow creatures" is the truer and wider maxim of a 
higher philosophy. If the end of the drama be to teach 
human character, our aim in reading it should be to 
learn human character. We come now to the more 
practical part how to study it according to the Three 
Laws of Memory. 

Hamlet is best studied in the w^ay that every other 
play of Shakespeare is best studied, that is to say, by fre- 
quently reading it, until the whole play in all its parts 
stands in the mind like a personal experience. Hamlet 
is perhaps Shakespeare's greatest masterpiece. The 
character of the hero of the play is by common consent 

65 



How to Speak in Public 

reckoned his greatest, his most interesting creation. The 
play as a reading and acting play has been for nearly 300 
years the most continuously popular play known. It has 
contributed more to the common stock of current ex- 
pression than any other composition in literature, except 
the Bible. Words and phrases in it have become so in- 
grafted in our speech that they have become in very 
truth household vsrords ; that is to say, not merely ** house- 
hold vi^ords" of the usual sort or the words and phrases 
of culture and refinement, but "household words" in 
the same sense of being the words and phrases of common 
universal use. People quote *' Hamlet" every day of 
their lives without knowing it. 

It will readily be seen he who has his Hamlet well 
memorized has at his free command one of the chief 
storehouses of noble thought and apt expression to be 
found in the English language. 

The play of Hamlet in gross analysis may be said to 
consist of but three divisions. First, the revelation to 
Hamlet; second, Hamlet's disclosure to the King that 
his secret is known; and thirdly, and through the King's 
effort to be rid of Hamlet, the culmination. The first 
act is devoted to and completes the part of the ghost's 
revelation. The following synopsis may be used in 
study. 

(1) Relate in your own words the story of Hamlet, 
bringing out as well as you can the main dramatic feat- 
ures of the play. 

(2) Note the Associations by Likeness, by Contrast 
and Concurrence to be found in the play, between the 

66 



The Study of Shakespeare 

characters and scenes. Note the likeness between Ham- 
let and Horatio, so like to each other in their devotion, 
nobility of soul, etc., and yet what a contrast. Horatio 
evenly balanced, well poised, steady, Hamlet restless, 
impetuous, whose imagination compassed heaven and 
earth. Note also the contrast between Hamlet's humor 
and his melancholy, each relieving and making more 
impressive the other. Contrast Laertes with Hamlet. 
They are like to each other in one respect, each has lost 
his father under deplorable circumstances; but Laertes is 
impulsive, rash, brutal, seeking immediate revenge, while 
Hamlet is reflective, philosophical and calculating. Con- 
trast the wise sayings of Hamlet's maxims taken from 
life, with the copy-book maxims of the wily, garrulous, 
time-serving, worldly-minded old Polonius. Contrast 
Ophelia with Juliet ; the clowns in the grave-yard scene. 
Note the wonderful contrast in the scene where the 
ghost of the murdered King appears to Hamlet, in the 
middle of the night upon the ramparts of the Castle, and 
the awful background of uproar and revelry, as the red 
glare of the King's carousal shines from the palace 
windows. 

(3) Give brief characterizations with appropriate 
illustrations from the play of Ophelia, Polonius, Hamlet 
and other principal characters. 

(4) Express your own opinion in regard to Ham- 
let's mental condition, whether he was sane or not, and 
back up your opinion with quotations from the play itself. 

(5) Give a number of words, phrases and short 
sentences from the play, that by their frequent use have 
become parts of our language. 

67 



How to Speak in Public 

The next step in the study of Shakespeare is to try 
and verify his different characters and find their Hkeness 
in the people around us. The student must ask, is this 
character true ? Have we ever seen or heard of any per- 
son like this ? We can, if at all observant, see many of 
Shakespeare's characters living and moving among us. 
Take for example Hamlet, the highest character, and 
Caliban, the very lowest. A great writer has said that 
Germany is Hamlet, meaning that we can easily see in 
those men of active mind, who think much and talk 
much, a likeness to Hamlet; and on the other hand, we 
see a likeness to Caliban in the degraded masses of large 
cities who seem half men and half brutes. 



68 



CHAPTER XL 

Shakespearean Quotations for Public 

Speakers Representing Every Play 

Written By the Dramatist 

FAMILIAR and frequently quoted passages, also 
Scripture and Shakespeare parallels. As an addi- 
tional aid to the memory the speaker's name has been 
attached to each quotation. 

AMBITION— AUTHORITY 

Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; 
By that sin fell the angels; how can man then, 
The image of his Maker, hope to win by 't ? 

Henry VIII, 3:2. {Cardinal Wolsey^ 

Ambition's debt is paid . . . 

O mighty Caesar! dost thou he so low ? 

Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, 

Shrunk to this little measure ? 

Julius Ccesar 3:1. (Mark Antony). 

But man, proud man! 
Drest in a little brief authority. 
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, 
As make the angels weep. 

Measure for Adeasure 2:2. {Isabella). 

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How to Speak in Public 

CONSCIENCE 

Conscience does make cowards of us all. 

Hamlet 3:1. (Hamlet). 

How is't with me when every noise appals me? 

Macbeth 2:2. {Macbeth.) 

I feel within me 
A peace above all earthly dignities, 
A still and quiet conscience. 

Henry VHL 3:2. (Cardinal Wolsey). 

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak 
With most miraculous organ. . . . 

The play's the thing 
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king. 

Hamlet 2:2. ( Hamlet) . 

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, 

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, 

Raze out the written troubles of the brain, 

And, with some sweet, oblivious antidote. 

Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stufi. 

Which weighs upon the heart? Macbeth 5 :3. {Macbeth). 

Come, come, and sit you down, you shall not budge; 
You go not till I set you up a glass. 
Wherein you may see the inmost part of you. 
. . . O Hamlet, speak no more; 
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; 
And there I see such black and grained spots 
As will not leave their tinct. Hmnlet 3:4. {Gertrude), 

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Shakespearean Quotations 

Methought I heard a voice cry, ''Sleep no more! 
Macbeth doth murder sleep! — the innocent sleep, 
Sleep that knits up the raveli'd sleeve of care. 
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath. 
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, 
Chief nourisher in life's feast." 

Macbeth 2:2. (Macbeth). 

Conscience, say I, you counsel well; fiend, say I, 
you counsel well: to be ruled by my conscience I should 
stay with the Jew, my master, . . . and to run away 
from the Jew I should be ruled by the fiend, who is the 
devil himself: Certainly, the Jew is the very devil incar- 
nation: and, in my conscience, my conscience is a kind 
of hard conscience, to offer to counsel me to stay with 
the Jew. Merchantof Venice 2:2, {Launcelot Gobbo). 

What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted! 
Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just; 
And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel, 
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. 

// Henry VI. 3:2. {King Henry). 

CHARITY— MERCY 

The quality of mercy is not strain'd; 
It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven. 
Upon the place beneath; it is twice bless'd: 
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes; 
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes 
The throned monarch better than his crown. 
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, 

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How to Speak in Public 

The attribute to awe and majesty, 

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings. 

But mercy is above this sceptered sway, 

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, 

It is an attribute to God himself; 

And earthly power doth then show likest God's 

When mercy seasons justice. 

Merchant of Venice 4:1. (Port/a). 

DEATH AND THE FUTURE— ETERNITY 
He that dies, pays all debts. Tempest 3:2, (Stephana), 

Death, death, O amiable, lovely death ! 

King John 3:4. ( Constance), 

Death, as the Psalmist sayeth, is certain to all; all shall 
die. II Henry IK 3:2. (Shal/owy 

It IS a knell 
That summons thee to heaven, or to hell. 

Macbeth 2:1. {Macbeth). 

Immortality attends the former, 
Making a man a god. Pericles 3:2. 

Thou know'st 'tis common! all that lives must die 
Passing through nature to eternity. 

Hamlet 1:2. {Gertrude), 

Mount, mount, my soul! thy seat is up on high 
Whilst thy gross flesh sinks downward, here to die. 

Richard IL 5:5- 
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Shakespearean Quotations 

Men must endure 
Their going hence, even as their coming hither 
Ripeness is all. King Lear 5:2 {Edgar). 

Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain 

Full character'd with lasting memory. 

Which shall above that idle rank remain, 

Beyond all date, even to eternity. Sonnet 122, 

The cloud-capp*d towers, the gorgeous palaces, 

The solemn temples, the great globe itself. 

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve. 

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, 

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff 

As dreams are made on, and our little life 

Is rounded with a sleep. Tempest 4:1, (Prospero), 

Fear no more the heat o' the sun, 

Nor the furious winter's rages; 
Thou thy worldly task hast done. 

Home are gone, and ta'en thy wages: 
Golden lads and lasses must, 

As chimney-sweepers, come to dust. 

Fear no more the frown o' the great. 

Thou art past the tyrant's stroke; 
Care no more to clothe, and eat; 

To thee the reed is as the oak: 
The sceptre, learning, physic, must 
All follow this, and come to dust. Song in Cymbeline 4.2. 

If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, 
it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the 
readiness is all. Hamlet 5:2. {Hamht), 

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How to Speak in Public 
FOR GIVENESS— PARDON 

O God ! forgive my sins, and pardon Thee ! 

Ill Henry VI . 5:6, (King Henry VI), 

More needs she the divine than the physician, 

God, God; forgive us all ! Macbeth 5:1. (Doctor), 

FRIENDSHIP 

A friend should bear his friend's infirmities. 

'Julius Casar 4:3 ( Cassius) 

Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice. 
And could of men distinguish, her election 
Hath seal'd thee for herself: for thou hast been 
As one in suffering all, that suffers nothing; 
A man that fortune's buffets and rewards 
Has ta'en with equal thanks. 

Give me that man 
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him 
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, 
As I do thee. Hamlet 3:2. (Hamlet). 

FALSEHOOD— FLATTERY— DECEIT 

One may smile and smile and be a villain. 

Hamlet 1:5. (Hamlet). 

Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides; 
Who covers faults, at last shame them derides. 

King Lear 1:1. (Cordelia). 

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Shakespearean Quotations 

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. 

An evil soul, producing holy w^itness, 

Is hke a villain v^^ith a smiling cheek, 

A goodly apple rotten at the heart. 

O, w^hat a goodly outside falsehood hath ! 

Merchant of Venice 1:3, (Antonio), 

GRATITUDE— INGRATITUDE 

Ingratitude ! thou marble-hearted fiend. 

King Lear 1:4. (Lear), 

Ingratitude, more strong than traitor's arms. 

Julius Ccerar 3:2. (Antony). 

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is 

To have a thankless child. King Lear 1:4, (Lear), 

O Lord, that lends me life, 

Lend me a heart replete with thankfullness ! 

// Henry VL 1:1. (^King Henry VI). 

Filial ingratitude i 
Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand, 
For lifting food to 't? King Lear 3:4. (Lear). 

Ingratitude is monstrous and for the multitude to be 
ungrateful were to make a monster of the multitude. 

Coriolanus 2:3, (Tldrd Ci^tizen), 

HEAVEN-^-HELL 
O all you host of heaven 1 Hamlet 1:5. (.Hamlet), 

There's husbandry in heaven. 
Their candles are all out. Machnh <i:l, (Banquo) 

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How to Speak in Public 

My name be blotted from the book of life, 
And I from heaven banished. 

Richard 11. 2:3. {Northumberland), 

There are more things in heaven and earth — 
Than are dreamt of in our philosophy. 

Hamlet 1.5. iHamlet.). 

My soul shall thine keep company to heaven; 
Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast. 

Henry V. 4:6. {Exeter). 

The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling. 
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to 
heaven. 

Midsummer Night's Dream 5:1. (^Theseus). 

Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd, 
Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell ! 

Hamlet 1:4. {Hamlet). 

Down, down to hell, and say I sent thee thither, 
I, that have neither pity, love, nor fear. 

Ill Henry VI. 5:6. (Gloster). 

HYPOCRISY— INSINCERITY 

False face must hide what the false heart doth know. 

Macbeth 1:7. ( Macbeth ). 

God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves 
another; you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nickname 
God's creatures, and make your wantonness your 
ignorance. Hamlet 3 :1. (Hamlet). 

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Shakespearean Quotations 

Look like the time, bear welcome in your eye, 
Your hand, your tongue; look like the innocent flower. 
But be the serpent under't. He that's coming 
Must be provided for. 

Macbeth 1:5. {Lady Macbeth). 

IGNORANCE 

Ignorance is the curse of God, 

Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven, 

II Henry VI. 4:7. {Lord Say). 

We, ignorant of ourselves. 

Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers 

Deny us for our good. 

Antony and Cleopatra 2 :1 (^Mene crates), 

JUDGMENT 

Heaven forgive my sins at the day of Judgment. 

Merry Wives 3:9. i Evans). 

No reckoning made, but sent to my account 
With all my imperfections on my head. 

' Hamlet 1:5. (Ghost). 

Foul deeds w-ill rise, 
Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. 

Hamlet 1:2. (Hamlet). 

O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts 
And men have lost their reason. 

Julius Casar 3 :2. {Antony), 

JESUS— CHRIST-SAVIOUR 

So Judas did to Christ. 

Richard II. 4:1. {Richard 11), 

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How to Speak in PubKc 

The predous image of our dear Redeemer. 

Richard IlL 2:1. {King Edward) 
Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge Christ. 

I Henry IV. 3:2. (King Henry). 

Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes 
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated. 

Hamlet 1 :1. iMarcellus). 

JUSTICE— INJUSTICE 
Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just; 
And he but naked, though locked up in steel, 
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. 

II Henry VL 3:2. (King Henry VI). 
Be just, and fear not : 
Let all the ends thou aimest at be thy country's, 
Thy God's and Truth' s; then, if thou fall'st, O Cromwell, 
Thou fall'st a blessed martyr. 

Henry VIIL 3:2. (Wolsey), 

A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. 
Look with thine ears; see how yond* justice rails upon 
yond' simple thief. Hark, in thine ear: change places; 
and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the 
thief ? — Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar ? 
And the creature run from the cur? There thou mightst 
behold the great image of authority : a dog's obey'd in 
office — 

The usurer hangs the cozener. 
Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear ; 
Robes, and furr'd gowns, hide all. Plate sin with gold, 
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks : 
Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it. 

King Lear 4 :6. ( Lear) . 

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Shakespearean Quotations 
LIFE— TIME 

Thy life's a miracle. King Lear 4:6. (Edgar). 

Out, out, brief candle ! 
Life's but a walking shadow. 

Macbeth 5:5. {Macbeth). 

Time travels in divers paces with divers persons. 

As You Like It 3:2. (Rosalind). 

There is a tide in the affairs of men 
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune, 
Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
Is bound in shallows and in miseries. 

Julius Casar 4:3. ( Cassius) 

Come what, come may, 
Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. 

Macbeth 1:3. (Macbeth). 

I do not set my life at a pin's fee 

And, for my soul, what can it do to that, 

Being a thing immortal as itself ? 

Hamlet 1:4. (Hamlet). 

This day I breath'd first: time is come round; 
And where I did begin there shall I end ; 
My life is run bis compass. 

ytflms Ca^ar 5:3. (Cassius). 

And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe, 
And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot, 
And thereby hangs a tale. 

As Tou Like It 2:7. {The Fool). 

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How to Speak in Public 

The end crowns all; 
And that old common arbiter, Time, 
Will one day end it. 

Troilus and Cressida 4:5. (Hector), 

And this our life, exempt from public haunt, 

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks. 

Sermons in stones, and good in everything. 

As You Like It 2:1. {Banished Duke), 

Had I but died an hour before this chance, 
I had liv'd a blessed time, for from this instant 
There's nothing serious in mortality; 
All is but toys: renown and grace are dead; 
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees is left 
this vault to brag of. Macbeth 2:3. (Macbeth), 

I have liv'd long enough : my way of life 
Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf ; 
And that which should accompany old age. 
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, 
I must not look to have; but, in their stead. 
Curses, not loud, but deep, mouth-honor, breath. 
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. 

Macbeth 5 :3. ( Macbeth). 

LOVE— LUST 

He jests at scars that never felt a wound. 

Romeo and Juliet 2 :2. ( Romeo). 

What's in a name? That which we call a rose 
By any other name would smell as sweet. 

Romeo and Juliet 2:2. {Juliet), 

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Shakespearean Quotations 

From women's eyes this doctrine I derive; 
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire ; 
They are the books, the arts, the acadamies. 
That show, contain and nourish all the world. 

Love's Labors Lost 4:3. (^Birott). 

She's beautiful and therefore to be wooed; 
She is a woman, and therefore to be won. 

Henry VL 5:3. (Suffolk). 

Such an act, 
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty ; 
Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the rose 
From the fair forehead of an innocent love. 
And sets a blister there ; makes marriage vows 
As false as dicers' oaths: O! such a deed. 
As from the body of contraction plucks 
The very soul; and sweet rehgion makes 
A rhapsody of words: Heaven's face doth glow, 
Yea, this solidity and compound mass. 
With tristful visage, as against the doom^ 

Is thought-sick at the act 

O shame ! where is thy blush ? Rebellious hell. 

If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones. 

To flaming youth let virtue be as wax, 

And melt in her own fire. Hamlet 3 :4-, {Hamlet). 

MAN 

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in 
reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving, 
how express and admirable ! in action, how like an angel! 
in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the 
world ! the paragon of animals ! Hamlet 2 :2. (^Hamlet) . 

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How to Speak in Public 

Men at some time are masters of their fate; 
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars. 
But in ourselves that we are underlings. 

Julius Casar 1:2. iCassius), 

Thou seest, we are not all alone unhappy : 
This wide and universal theatre 
Presents more woeful pageants than the scene 
Wherein we play in. All the world's a stage, 
And all the men and women merely players : 
They have their exits and their entrances 
And one man in his time plays many parts 
His acts being seven ages. 

As Tou Like It 2 :7. (Banished Duke afid J agues). 

Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness! 
This is the state of man: To-day he puts forth 
The tender leaves of hopes, to-morrow blossoms. 
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him: 
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost; 
And — when he thinks, good easy man, full surely 
His greatness is a ripening — nips his root, and then he 
falls, as I do. Henry VIII. 3:2. ( Woisey). 

Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of 
Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole? . . 

... as thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, 
Alexander returned into dust; the dust is earth; of earth 
we make loam, and why of that loam, whereto he was 
converted, might they not stop a beer barrel? 

Imperial Caesar dead, and turn to clay, 

Might stop a hole to keep the wind away: 

O! that that earth, which kept the world in awe, 

Should patch a wall t* expel the winter's flaw! 

Hamlet 5:1. ( Hamlet), 

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Shakespearean Quotations 

MEMORY 

Memory, the warder of the brain. 

Macbeth 1\7. (Lady Macbeth), 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Mend your speech a little, 
Lest it may mar your fortunes. King Lear 1 :1. (Lear), 

I'll example you with thievery : 
The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction 
Robs the vast sea: the moon's an arrant thief, 
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun : 
The sea's a thief whose liquid surge resolves 
The moon into salt tears; the earth's a thief, 
That feeds and breeds by a composture stolen 
From general excrement: each thing's a thief. 

Timon of Athens 4^.3. (^Timon^. 

I have no other but a woman's reason: 
I think him so, because I think him so. 

Two Gentlemen of Verona 1:2. (Lucetta). 

It is a custom 
More honoured in the breach than the observance. 

Hamlet 1:4. (Hamlet). 

Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm. 

More longing, wavering, sooner lost and won, 

Than women's are. Twelfth Night 2:4. (Duke). 

What, man ! more water glideth by the mill 
Than wots the miller. 

Titus Andronicus 2:1, (Demetrius) 
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How to Speak in Public 

Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast. 
Comedy of Errors 1:1. ( Balthazar) . 

Every one can master a grief but he that has it. 

Muck Ado A bout Nothing 3:2. ( Benedict) . 

From lowest place when virtuous things proceed, 
The place is dignified by the doer's deed. 

Taming of the Shrew 2:3. 

Whose words all ears took captive. 

AIPs Well That Ends Well 5:3. (Lafen). 

What's gone and what's past help, 

Should be past grief. 77?^ Winter s Tale 1:2. 

NATURE'S LESSONS 

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. 

Troilus and Cressida 3 :3. ( Ulysses). 

In nature's infinite book of secrecy 
A little I can read. 

Antony and Cleopatra 1:2. (^Soothsayer) 

Are not these woods 
More free from peril than the envious court? 
Here feel we not the penalty of Adam, 
The season's difference, or the icy fang, 
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind, 
Which when it bites, and blows upon my body, 
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say, 
This is no flattery : these are counsellors 
That feelingly persuade me what I am. 
Sweet are the uses of adversity. 
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 
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Shakespearean Quotations 

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; 
And this our Hfe, exempt from public haunt, 
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing. 

As Tou Like It 2\1. {Banished Duke). 

PRAYER— PROVIDENCE 

We are in God's hands, brother. 

Henry V. 3:6. (^Henry V). 

Now I am past all comfort here, but prayers. 

Henry VI I L 4:2. {Katharine'). 

There's such divinity doth hedge a king. 

Ham let 4- :5. ( Claudius ) . 

There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. 

Hamlet 5:2. {Hamlet). 

There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough-hew them how we will. 

Hamlet 5:2. {Hamlet). 

He that doth the ravens feed, 

Yea, providently caters for the sparrow. 

As You Like It 2:3. ( Old Adam). 

PEACE 

Blessed are the peace-makers on earth. 

II Henry VI 2:1. {King Henry). 

Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace. 
To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not; 
Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's. 
Thy God's, and truth's. Henry VIII. 3:2. {Wolsey). 
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How to Speak in Public 

PURITY— HONOR —COURAGE— RECTITUDE 

To be honest, as this world goes> is to be one man 
picked out of ten thousand. Hamlet 2:2. (Hamlet). 

To thine own self be true; 

And it must follow, as the night the day, 

Thou can'st not then be false to any man. 

Hamlet 1:3. {Polonius). 

Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that hate thee: 

Corruption wins not more than honesty. 

Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace. 

To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not: 

Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, 

Thy God's and Truth's. Henry VI H. 3:2. ( Wolsey), 

For I am arm'd so strong in honesty. 

That they pass by me as the idle wind. 

Which I respect not. Julius Casar 4:3. (^Brutus) 

REPENTANCE— PENITENCE 

Mother, for love of grace 
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul. 
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks: 
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place. 
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within, 
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven; 
Repent what's past ; avoid what is to come. 

Hamlet 3:4. (Hamlet). 

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Shakespearean Quotations 

REMORSE 

Yet here's a spot. 
Out, damned spot ! out, I say ! . . . . 
Here's the smell of blood still ; all the perfumes 
Of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. 

Macbeth 5:1. {Lady Macbeth) 

Better be with the dead. 
Whom we to gain our peace have sent to peace. 
Than on the torture of the mind to lie 
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave; 
After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well ; 
Treason has done his worst : nor steel, nor poison, 
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing 
Can touch him further! Macbeth 3:2. (Macbeth). 

.... Make thick my blood 
Stop up th' access and passage to remorse ; 
That no compunctious visitings of nature 
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between 
Th' effect and it. Come to my woman's breasts, 
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, 
Wherever in your sightless substances 
You wait on nature's mischief. Come, thick night, 
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell ! 
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes ; 
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, 
To cry, *'Hold, hold!" Macbeth 1:5. {Lady Macbeth). 

Where should Othello go ? — 
Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starr'd wench ! 
Pale as thy smock ! when we shall meet at compt. 
This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven, 

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How to Speak in Public 

And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl ; 
Even like thy chastity — 

O, cursed, cursed slave ! — Whip me, ye devils, 
From the possession of this heavenly sight ! 
Blow^ me about in winds ! roast me in sulphur ! 
Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire ! 

Desdemona! dead Desdemona! dead. Oh, oh! 

Othello 5:2. ( Othello), 

REVENGE-HATE 

And by our holy Sabbath have I sworn, 
To have the due and forfeit of my bond : 
You'll ask me, why I rather choose to have 
A weight of carrion flesh, than to receive 
Three thousand ducats: I'll not answer that : 
But, say, it is my humor. 

Merchant of Venice 4:1. (^Shylock). 
If it will feed nothing else it will feed my revenge. . . . 
If you wrong us, shall we not revenge? .... If a Jew 
wrong a Christian, what is his humility? revenge : If a 
Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by 
Christian example ? why, revenge. 

Merchant of Venice 3:1. (^Shylock). 

SOUL 
Banquo, thy soul's flight 
If it find heaven, must find it out to-night. 

Macbeth 3:2. {Macbeth). 

1 do not set my life at a pin's fee ; 

And, for my soul, what can it do to that, 
Being a thing immortal as itself? 

Hamlet 1:4. (^Hamlet), 
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Shakespearean Quotations 

Look how the floor of heaven 
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold. 
There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st 
But in his motion like an angel sings, 
Still 'quiring to the young-eyed cherubins : 
Such harmony is in immortal souls. 

Merchant of Venice 5:1. C Lorenzo). 

SUICIDE 

Or that the everlasting had not fix'd 
His canon 'gainst self slaughter ! 

Hamlet 1:2. {Hamlet). 
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time . . . 
When he himself might his quietus make 
With a bare bodkin ? Who would these fardels bear, 
To grunt and sweat under a weary life; 
But that the dread of something after death. 

Hamlet 3:1. {Hamlet). 

SLANDER— MALICE 

No, 'tis slander, 
Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue 
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath 
Rides on the posting winds, and both belie 
All corners of the world. Cymbeline 3:4. {Pisanio). 

If thou dost slander her, and torture me, 

Never pray more; abandon all remorse ; 

On horror's head horrors accumulate ; 

Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amaz'd, 

For nothing canst thou to damnation add, 

Greater than that. Othello 3:3. {Othello). 



How to Speak in Public 

Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, 
Thou shalt not escape calumny. 

Hamlet 3:1. {Hamlet), 

THE WORLD 

O, how full of briars is this working-day world ! 

As You Like It 1:3. {Rosalind). 

.... The world's grown honest ! 
Then is dooms-day near. Hamlet 2:2. {Hamlet). 

World, world, O world ! 
But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee. 
Life would not yield to age. 

King Lear 4:1. {Edgar), 

You have too much respect upon the world 
They lose it that do buy it with much care. 
... I hold the world but as the world 
A stage, where every man plays a part. 

Merchant of Venice 1:1. {Antonio). 



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CHAPTER XII. 
Scripture and Shakespeare Parallels 

Qootations, References* Paraphrases, etc. 

THE following arrangement of passages serves to 
show the Poet's frequent use of thought and lan- 
guage as found in the sacred volume. It does not, of 
course, follow that these were all purposely quoted from 
the Bible, but it does estabhsh, beyond all dispute, that 
the mind of the great dramatist was thoroughly imbued 
with the thoughts and teachings of the Scriptures.^ 

So frequently does he borrow figures of speech from 
the Bible — adapting them to incidents or characters of 
his plays — that they not only illustrate his subject or 
convey his moral, but they also throw new light upon 
the Scripture text. 

Moreover, no one can read these Bible passages, 
placed as they are here, side by side, with others from 
the Poet, without perceiving something of the great 
debt we owe to the Scriptures for much that is best and 
greatest in Shakespeare. 

Some of these parallelisms are very striking; as, for 
example, the various uses which are made in the respec- 
tive plays of such historic events as the murder of Abel 
by his brother; Jeptha's vow of sacrifice; Herod's slaugh- 
ter of infants; the betrayal by Judas; and the parable of 
the prodigal son. 

Among the parallels are some Bible texts literally 
quoted, but the greater part of them are better than 
verbatim quotations. They are the Word inbreathed, 

91 



How to Speak in Public 

until it became Shakespeare's, and then, from this incar- 
nated word — genius inspired — there has been given to 
the world lessons high and broad: — a new interpretation; 
the truth, with a new application, read and written into 
the life and experience of men and women as they are 
found in and of the world. 

^Referring to the allusion to Matthew 5:22 in The Merchant 
of Venice 1:1, Sprague remarks: "Shakespeare is so familiar with 
the Bible that we who know less of the sacred book are sometimes 
slow to catch his allusions." See Sprague's Notes on The Mer- 
chant of Venice. 



PARALLEL PASSAGES 



Blessed are the peacemakers. 
Matt. V. 9. 

Not one of them (sparrows) 
is forgotten before God. 

Lukexii.6. 
Matt. X. 29. 

Behold the fowls of the air 
and your heavenly Father feed- 
eth them. Matt. vi. 26. 

The Lord's anointed. 

I Sam. xxvi. 11, 16. 
Destroy this temple. 

John ii. 19. 
The temple of this body. 

John ii. 21. 

Forgive and ye shall be for- 
given. Luke vi. 37. 

See also Matt. vi. 12. 14. 15. 



Blessed are the peacemakers 
on earth. II Hen. VI. 2:1. 

There's a special providence 
in the fall of a sparrow. 

Ham. 5:2. 



He that doth the ravens feed 
Yea, providently caters for 

the sparrow. As You Like 

It 2:3. 

Most sacrilegious murder hath 

broke ope 
The Lord's anointed temple 

and stole thence 
The life o' the building. 

Macb. 2:3. 

I as free forgive as I would 
be forgiven. Hen. VIII. 2:1. 

I pardon him as God shall 
pardon me. Rich. II. 5:3. 



92 



Parallel Passages 



Sufficient onto the day Is the 
evil thereof. 

Matt. vi. 34. 



But it sufficeth that the day 
will end, and then the end is 
known. Jul. Caesar 5:1. 



Do good to them that hate Cherish those hearts that 

you. Matt. V. 44. hate thee. Hen. VIII. 3:2. 



Overcome evil with good. 
Rom. xii. 21. 



With a piece of scripture 
Tell them that God bids us do 
good for evil. Rich. III. 1:3. 



Pray for them that despite- 
fully use you. Matt. v. 44. 



Pray for them that have done 
scath to us. Rich. III. 1:3. 



It is easier for a camel to go 
through the eye of a needle. 
Matt. xix. 24. 



It is as hard to come as for a 
camel to thread through the 
postern of a needle's eye. 

Rich. II. 5:5. 



Be baptized and wash away 
thy sins. Actsxxii. 16. 



Your conscience wash' d 
As pure as sin with baptism. 
Hen. V. 1:2. 



For all have sinned. 

Rom. iii. 23. 



Forbear to judge, for we are 
sinners all. II Hen. VI. 3:3. 



The tree is known by his 
fruit. Matt. xii. 33. 



If the tree be known by the 
fruit and fruit by the tree. 
I Hen. IV. 2:4. 



Though your sins be as scar- 
let they shall be as white as 
snow. Isa. i. 18. 



What if this curs'd hand 
Were thicker than itself with 

brother's blood ? 
Is there not rain enough in the 

sweet heavens, 
To wash it white as snow? 
Ham. 3:3. 



m 



How to Speak in Public 



Neither do men light a can- 
dle, and put it under a bushel, 
but on a candle-stick and it 
giveth light unto all that are in 
the house. Let your light so 
shine before men. 

Matt. V. 15, 16. 



Love is the fulfilling of the 
law. Rom. xiii. 10. 

Thy right hand hath holden 
me up. Ps. xviii. 35. 

Are they not all ministering 
spirits? Heb. i. 14. 

Thou makest it soft with 
showers. Ps. Ixv. 10. 

As the cold of snow in the 
time of harvest. 

Prov. XXV. 13. 

Though I be rude in speech. 
II Cor. xi. 6. 

Wisdom crieth without; she 
uttereth her voice in the streets. 
Prov. i. 20. 

Woe to thee, O land, when 
thy king is a child. 

Ecci. X. 16. 



Heaven doth with us as we with 

torches do 
Not light them for themselves: 

for if our virtues 
Do not go forth of us, t'were 

all alike as if we had them 

not. Meas. for Meas. 1:1. 

How far that little candle 

throws his beams 
So shines a good deed in a 

naughty world. 

Mer. of Ven. 5:1. 

Charity itself fulfills the law 
And who can sever love from 
charity? Love's Labor 4:3. 

In the great hand of God I 
stand. Macb. 2;3. 

A ministering angel shall my 
sister be. Ham. 5:1. 

It droppeth as the gentle 
rain from heaven. 

Mer. of Ven. 4:1. 

As snow in harvest. 

Rich. III. 1:4. 



Rude am I in speech. 

Othello 1:3. 

Wisdom cries out in the 
streets and no man regards it. 
I Hen. IV. 1:2. 

Woe to the land that is 
govern' d by a child. 

Rich. III. 2:3. 



94 



Parallel Passages 



What Is man that thou are 
mindful of him . . . thou hast 
made him a little lower than 
the angels. 





Ps. viii 


. 4. 




Heb. ii 


. 6. 


Whose 


names were not writ- 


ten in the 


book of life. 






Rev. xvii 


. 8. 


Let them be blotted 


DUt of 


the book 


of the living. 






Ps. Ixix. 


28. 



To everything there is a sea- 
son and a time to every pur- 
pose under heaven. 

Eccl. iii. 1. 

There was a certain rich man 
which was clothed in purple. . . 

And there was a certain beg- 
gar named Lazarus . . . more- 
over the dogs came and licked 
his sores . . . 

The beggar died and was 
carried by the angels into 
Abraham's bosom. 

Luke xvi. 2:2. 



What a piece of work is man, 
how noble in reason, how in- 
finite in faculty, in form and 
moving how express and ad- 
mirable, in action how like an 
angel. Ham. 2:2. 

My name be blotted from the 
book of life. Rich. II. 1:3 



There is a time for all things. 
Com. Err. 2:2. 



Dives that lived in purple. 

! Hen. IV. 3:3. 
As ragged as Lazarus in the 
painted cloth, where the glut- 
ton's dogs licked his sores. 
I Hen. IV. 4:2. 
Sweet peace, conduct his soul 
to the bosom of good old Abra- 
ham. Rich. II. 4:1. 



Not this man but Barrabas. 
Now Barrabas was a robber. 
John xviii. 40. 



Legions of Angels. 

Matt xxvi. 53. 



Would, any of the stock of 
Barrabas 

Had been her husband rath- 
er than a Christian. 

Mer. of Ven. 4:1. 

Legions of angels. 

Merry Wives 1:3. 



95 



How to Speak in Public 



And the graves were opened 
and many bodies of the saints 
which slept arose and came 
out of their graves. 

Matt, xxvii. 52. 



And the grave stood tenant- 
less, and the sheeted dead did 
squeal and gibber in the Ro- 
man streets. Ham. 1:1. 



Thou hast brought me into 
the dust of death. 

Ps. xxii. 15. 

I go whence I shall not re- 
turn, even to the land of dark- 
ness and the shadow of death. 
Job X. 21. 

We spend our years as a 
tale that is told. Ps. xc. 9. 

Man is like to vanity: his 
days are a shadow that passeth 
away. Ps. cxliv. 4. 

My days are swifter than a 
weaver's shuttle. Job vii. 6. 

I die daily. I Cor. xv. 31. 



The pnnce of this world 
cometh. John xiv. 30. 

Straight is the gate and nar- 
row is the way which leadeth 
unto life. Matt. vii. 14. 

Luke xiii. 24. 

Put not your trust in princes. 
Pb. cxlvi. 3. 



— The way to dusty death. 
Macb. 5:5. 

The undiscover'd country 
from whose bourne 
No traveller returns. 

Ham. 3:1. 

Life's but a walking shadow 
... it is a tale 
Told by an idiot full of sound 
Signifying nothing. 

Macb. 5:5. 

Life is a shuttle. 

Merry Wives 5:1. 

The queen .... 
Died every day she lived. 
Macb. 4:3. 

He is the prince of this world. 
All's Well 4:5. 

I am for the house with the 
narrow gate. All's Well 4:5. 



O, how wretched 
Is that poor man that hangs on 
prince's favors. 

Hen. VIIL 3:2. 



96 



Parallel Passages 



Thorns and snares are in the 
way of the froward. 

Prov. xxii. 5. 



The way of a fool is right in 
his own eyes: but he that heark- 
eneth unto counsel is wise. 
Prov. xii. 15. 

If any man seemeth to be 
wise in this world let him be- 
come a fool that he may be 
wise. I Cor iii. 18. 

Be sure your sins will find 
you out. Num. xxxii. 23. 

Visiting the iniquity of the 
fathers upon the children unto 
the third and fourth generation. 
Ex. XX. 5. 



There shall not a hair fall 
from the head of any of you. 
Actsxxvii. 34. 



I am amazed methinke, and 
lose my way 

Among the thorns and dan- 
gers of this world. 

King John 4:3. 

The fool doth think he is 
wise, but the wise man knows 
he is a fool. 

As You Like It 5:1 



For murder though it have 
no tongue will speak 

With most miraculous organ. 
Ham. 2:2. 

The sins of the father are to 
be laid upon the children. 

Mer. of Ven. 3:5. 
Thy sins are visited in this child 
The canon of the law is laid on 

him 
Being but the second generation 
Removed from thy sin con- 
ceiving womb. 

King John 2:1. 

There is no soul 
No, not so much perdition as a 

hair 
Betid to any creature in this 

vessel 
Which thou heard 'st cry. 
The Tempest 1:2. 



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How to Speak in Public 



The heavens declare the glory 
of God and the firmament 
shovveth his handy work . . . 
There is no speech nor lan- 
guage where their voice is not 
heard. Ps. xix. 1, 3. 

When the morning stars sang 
together. Job xxxviii. 7, 



Look how the floor of heaven 

Is thick inlaid with patines of 
bright gold; 

There's not the smallest orb 
which thou behold'st 

But in his motion like an an- 
gel sings. ^ 

Mer. ofVen. 5:1. 



^Hallam speaks of this passage as 
in Shakespeare. 

A good name is rather to be 
chosen than great riches. 

Prov. xxii. 1. 
A good name is better than 
precious ointment. 

Eccl. vii. 1. 



Unstable as water. 

Gen. xlix. 4. 

Fear not, neither be thou 
dismayed.. V Josh. viii. 1. 

To be tempted of the devil. 
Matt. iv. 1. 

O generation of vipers. 

Matt. iii. 7. 



The most sublime," perhaps, 



Good name, in man and wo- 
man, dear my lord 

Is the immediate jewel of their 
souls. 

Who steals my purse, steals 
trash. 

But he that filches from me my 
good name 

Robs me of that which not en- 
riches him, 

And makes me poor indeed. 
Othello 3:3. 

False as water. 

Othello 5:2. 

Cheer thy heart, and be thou 
not dismay 'd. 

Rich. III. 5:3. 

Shall I be tempted of the 
devil thus? Rich. 111.4:4. 

A generation of vipers. 
Troi. and Cress. 3:1. 



For satan himself is trans- 
formed into an angel of light. 
II Cor. xi. 14. 



The devil hath power 
To assume a pleasing shape. 
Ham. 2:2. 



98 



Parallel Passages 



If a man dies and have no 
son, then ye shall cause his in- 
heritance to pass upon his 
daughter. Num. xxvii. 8. 



And the Lord God took the 
man and put him into the gar- 
den of Eden to dress it. 

Gen. ii. 15. 
The woman said, the serpent 
beguiled me and I did eat. 
Gen. iii. 13. 

And the Lord God sent him 
(Adam forth from the garden 
to till the ground. 

Gen. iii. 23. 

And Eve bare Cain and said, 
I have gotten a man from the 
Lord. Gen. iv. 1. 

Cain rose up against Abel 
his brother and slew him. 

Gen. iv. 8. 



The voice of thy brother's 
blood crieth unto me from the 
ground. Gen. iv. 10. 



In the book of Numbers is it 
writ, 

When the man dies, let the in- 
heritance 

Descend unto the daughter. 
Hen. V. 1:2. 

Thou old Adam's likeness 
set to dress this garden .... 
What Eve, what serpent hath 

suggested thee. 
To make a second fall of cursed 

man. Rich. 11.3:4. 

In the state of innocency Adam 
fell. I Hen. IV. 3:3. 



The scripture 
digged. 



says, Adam 
Ham. 5:1. 



The birth of Cain, the first 
male child. King John 3:4 
The first born Cain. 

II Hen. IV. 1:1. 

How the knave jowls it to the 

ground. 
As if it were Cain's jawbone 

that did the first murder. 
Ham. 5:1. 

O my offence is rank, it smells 

to heaven 
It hath the primal eldest curse 

upon't 
A brother's murder. 

Ham. 3:3. 
Which blood like sacrificing 

Abel*s cries 
Even from the tongueless cav- 
ern of the earth. 

Rich. II. 1:1. 
Thy brother's blood the thirsty 
earth hath drunk. 

Ill Hen. VI. 2:3. 



99 



How to Speak in Public 



And now art thou cursed from 
the earth. Gen. iv. 11» 



Be thou cursed Cain 
To slay thy brother Abel, 
I Hen. VI. 1:3. 



A fugitive and a vagabond 
shalt thou be in the earth. 

Gen. iv. 12. 



With Cain, go wander 
through the shade at night. 
Rich. II. 5:6. 



And they went unto Noah 
into the ark two and two of all 
flesh . . . And the flood was 
forty days upon the earth. 
Gen. vii. 15, 17. 



There is sure another flood to- 
ward 
And these couples are coming 
to the ark. 

As You Like It 5:4. 
Noah's flood could not do it. 
Com. of Err. 3:2. 



Thou shalt not kill. 

Ex. XX. 13. 

Thou shalt do no murder. 

Matt. xix. 18. 



The great King of Kings hath 
in the table of his law 
commanded 

That thou shalt do no murder. 
Rich. III. 1:4. 



Thou shalt not steal. 

Ex. XX. 15. 



Thou shalt not steal. 

Meas. for Meas. 1:2. 



And Daniel convicted them 
of false witness. And from 
that day forth was Daniel had 
in great reputation. 

Susanna Vs. 61, 64. 



A Daniel come to judgment ! 

yea a Daniel! 
O wise young Judge, how I do 

honor thee. 

Mer. of Ven. 4:1. 



100 



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"Next to the originator of a good sentence 
is the first quoter of it." — Emerson. 

PART III. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Ready -Made Speechlets, Toasts, 

Quotations, Anecdotes for 

Every Occasion 

Selected From the World's Wit and Wisdom 

TO MEMORIZE these terse and witty sayings, 
stories, speechlets, etc., will place you in a posi- 
tion to entertain your friends on all occasions, and to 
be sought out among men for your spontaneous good 
humor and ability to interest and amuse at social or in- 
formal gatherings. The ability to do these things, to be 
popular, constitutes a first stepping stone in many a 
career of professional, political or business life. 

INTRODUCTORY 

Have you not been called upon for a few remarks and 
know by experience some of the embarrassments such a 
call entails? 

The following series of speechlets, toasts, quotations, 
etc., embraces a pleasing variety of wit, humor, historical 
facts, anecdotes and wise sayings appropriate for all occa- 
sions. All successful speakers admit the great advantage 
of being prepared. Robert Ingersoll, one of the greatest 
orators that ever lived, denied there ever was impromptu 

103 



How to Speak in Public 

speaking. He claims that all speeches of merit must be 
prepared. Few men make so many speeches as Chaun- 
cey Depew. He admits that he prepares his speeches in 
advance and goes loaded for the occasion, "Preparation 
is the real art of speaking to please," said Tom Marshall. 
"They tell of my astonishing bursts of eloquence. 1 
simply write out my speech in full and commit it to 
memory." 

"Having made a study of the methods of orators^ I 
find few permit themselves to speak unless they have 
time to prepare, carefully revise and commit to memory 
their speeches." Quince's saying to Snug, in Midsum- 
mer Night's Dream to whom was assigned the lion's part 
in the play: "You may do it extempore, for it is noth- 
ing but roaring," may do for those satisfied with mere 
noise, but ideas and words to express them that are not 
thought out in advance by the speaker, are not likely to 
create favorable impression, or be thought of afterward 
by the hearer. 

By the aid of the Dickson Method you will be enabled 
to memorize any of these speechlets in a very short 
time. Then when you are called upon you will be 
enabled to do yourself justice. To be well spoken is a 
strong point in your favor in many walks of life, in busi- 
ness, in society. The ability to speak, to debate and 
argue effectively is a most valuable asset and an indis- 
pensable requisite of success. 

ABOUT FRATERNAL ORDERS 

Fraters all : Behind the clouds of the present 
time there is a bright ray of light flashing, and it flashes 

104 



Ready-made Speechlets 

from the stars of the fraternal societies. Odd Fellows, 
Masons, Knights, be what they may, they all should 
have the common aim — the teaching of man's fellowship 
to man. What a pure doctrine is preached in the lodge 
thus: **Each for the other and God for us all," and we 
can thankfully say, more than preached, practiced, but 
not yet practiced enough. The fraternal orders smooth 
over with glorious impartiality the inequalities of life; 
brother is brother, though he be Dives or Lazarus. 

Odd Fellows, Masons, Knights, Foresters, fraternal 
societies all, this is the real object of your pledges. By 
true adherance to your vows you could accomplish it, 
and see the peace and comfort brought By universal 
brotherhood. 

It cannot be a delusive hope that we may yet see the 
time when the strong may recognize that they are but 
stewards of their strength for the care of the weak. 

Fraternity never cast a shadow upon a home, never 
wounded a human heart and never wronged a human 
soul. It is never deaf to the cry of the needy, never 
Wind to the wants of the deserving, and its broad and 
noble heart promptly responds to the call of the erring 
and a cry for help from any of its kind. It is one of the 
mighty forces to-day working toward the upbuilding of 
the race of men. 

Let fraternity have the honor due for her great work 
of goodness. While at times it may seem to have limits, 
its general tendency is to broaden the human heart and 
make it capable of including in its sympathies all the 
race of men instead of those who are confined within 
the limits of the immediate organizations. 

Fraternity strives to make men happier by making 
105 



How to Speak in Public 

them better, and in this task she has enlisted a great 
army of hopeful workers, and year by year the work is 
moving forward toward the goal of its brightest dreams. 

FRATERNITY, THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN 

In the Roman army of old the soldier carried a large 
oblong shield on his left arm. When a city was besieged 
the men in close rank locked their shields together over 
their heads and then marched in safety to the gate. So 
is it, brethren, with such an organization as ours. One 
cannot contemplate, without great gratitude, the spirit 
which has united you. You lock your shields over your 
heads as you march against the vicissitudes, the trials 
and temptations of life, and not over your own heads 
alone, but others are sheltered beneath them. A com- 
rade falls, but your locked shields ward off hardship and 
penury from his widow and her little ones. A compan- 
ion is prostrated with sickness, but he is cared for, and 
his wants are suppHed from your Sick Benefit Fund. 
Thousands have been already, in the few years in which 
you have been organized, paid out to the widow and or- 
phan, and hundreds when the provider of the family was 
laid aside by sickness. How many can testify to the 
timely help thus given — in the tender care bestowed in 
watching by the sick bed, and in provision being made 
for the daily need. There is another element which has 
a place in our Order, and one which needs cultivation to 
the very utmost by us all. We need to form a cordon 
of strong hearts to ward off temptations from our broth- 
er, and to keep him from the hands of the destroyer. 
True brotherhood should make much of this. Warding 

106 



( 



Ready-made Speechlets 

off the outward ills which touch the body or the comfort 
of the home merely, is not sufficient to meiit the needs 
of men. We need to help in warding oH those evils 
which reach the very vitals of true manhood. The 
temptations which fight against the Hfe and the lusts 
which war against the soul, need most of all to be guard- 
ed against. The alien hands which strip the soul of its 
robe of purity and righteous character must be restrained. 
There are hungerings of the heart for brotherhood which 
can only be satisfied with heartfelt sympathy. One is 
glad to be able to say that in the meetings of this and 
other fraternal orders from time to time there are those 
elements, and that all that takes place is elevating and 
helpful, and the fellowship cultivated which must 
strengthen all in the cause of right and truth. 

"This world's not all a fleeting show 

For man's delusion given, 
He that hath soothed a widow's woe 
Or wiped an orphan's tear doth know 

There's something here of Heaven. 

And he that walks life's thorny way 

With feelings calm and even; 
Whose path is lit from day to day 
By virtue's bright and steady ray, 

Hath something felt of Heaven. 

He that the Christian's course hath run, 

And all his foes forgiven; 
Who measures out life's little span 
In love to God, or love to man. 

On earth hath tasted Heaven." 



107 



How to Speak in Public 
FRATERNITY AND BUSINESS 

Fraters: It is a satisfaction to be with you this 
evening. I like to attend lodge. I enjoy the welcome, 
the fraternal greeting, the glad hand, the pleasant smiles, 
the ready sympathy, the hearty fellowship of the lodge 
room. It is here we see and experience the better side 
or human nature and learn to know one another as 
something more than cold, calculating and selfish busi- 
ness automatons. 

In this work-a-day- world, during **desk hours," we 
are too prone to surround ourselves with an atmosphere 
of business that almost forbids friendships. But in the 
lodge room, where the perplexities, troubles, cares and 
irritations of business are put aside, we come to realize 
that human nature is not altogether selfish, and that 
after all hearts beat and blood courses warm for others. 
Here, of all places, the exactions of business are not 
allowed to stand in the way of fellowship and brotherly 
regard. In lodges, other than those making use of such 
symbols, we as truly "meet upon the level and part upon 
the square." 

In a neighbor's garden, amongst foilage that in curi- 
ous shape wearies imagination, and flowers that in splen- 
dor of tint and witchery of odor shame imitation, I saw 
a plant clad in spines of forbidding sharpness and having 
nothing I could discover to win or merit admiration 
among that galaxy of beauties. One evening I received 
an invitation to again visit the garden, where I found 
that graceless plant wearing the glory of a flower resplen- 
dent in beauty and revelling in perfume. It was the 
Cactus Grandiflorus — the paragon of plants that unfolds 

108 



Ready-made Speechlets 

its flower only to the stars and the silent night. 

That spiney ugliness had hidden in its heart a thing 
of fragrance and beauty. Men at business may appear 
as graceless as that spine-clad plant, but in the lodge 
room human nature puts forth a flower, and we can for- 
give its business aspect for the beauty at its heart. Let 
each of us see to it that ours is a full-blossomed, perfect 
flower whose grace and fragrance shall be grateful to the 
Master of the garden. 

It is necessary and right, both for the good of the in- 
dividual and of society, that business be conducted in a 
systematic manner, but it seems to me that much of the 
abrupt formality generally accompanying its transaction 
could be dispensed with and more of the spirit of genial 
fraternity infused into it. Why should we have to wait 
till the sun goes down ? 

"And the cares that infest the day 
Fold their tents like the Arabs 
And aa silently steal away" 

for fraternity to unfold its fragrant and beautiful flower ? 

ORGANIZATION AND ATTENDANCE 

"What's the use of keeping up the lodge organiza- 
tion?" Sure enough what is the use? '*I don't get any 
benefit from it." Of course you don't. Neither does 
the man who bandages his eyes and stuffs his ears tuU of 
cotton get any good out of a theatrical performance. 
Neither does the church member receive any aid and 
comfort from his fellow member if he stays away from 
church and fails to pay his pew rent. The fact is, dis- 
gruntled brother, this is a big and busy world; and while 

109 



How to Speak in Public 

most men will do a kind act, or at least speak a gracious 
word, if the opportunity to do the one or the other comes 
in their way, it is unfortunately true that few men have 
the time, even had they the inclination to go out of their 
way to find persons upon whom to bestow gracious 
words, much less kind acts. If you would have a share 
of good things in this life, you must keep in the swim; 
be on hand when the distribution takes place. There 
are many people in the world, and the chances are what- 
ever there is to be passed around there won't be enough 
for all. Reach out your hand with the rest, or most 
surely you will be left. You habitually keep away from 
the lodge; possibly you are always behind in your dues 
and assessments; when the Order is brought up in con- 
versation, you are about as well qualified to speak of its 
doings as of the cuneform inscriptions on the pyramids 
or the primordial germ theory; you lock yourself up in 
your own narrow individual environment, and throw the 
key overboard, and then expect that the world will leave 
everything else and go fishing for that key in order to 
release you. And it doesn't make any difference wheth- 
er it is a lodge, church or engine company; if you don't 
show yourself occasionally and show that you are inter- 
ested, you will be let severely alone, you will be utterly 
forgotten, and you won't get any benefit out of it. But 
instead of shutting yourself up in your own exclusiveness, 
suppose you come out of your hide-bound foolishness 
and bear a hand with the rest of 'em; my word for it, 
you will soon find that there is a great deal in the lodge 
organization, and before you are aware cf it, you will 
have gotten lots of benefit out of it. 

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Ready-made Speechlets 

To lodge organizations and the true human fellow- 
ship begotten, fostered and perpetuated through attend- 
ance upon fraternal gatherings and observance of princi- 
ples and precepts there inculcated and practiced, individ- 
uals ow^e much, and the race of man is very deeply in- 
debted. 

Gather as often as possible about lodge altars, and as- 
sist to the extent of your ability to fan fraternal fires into 
a bright and constant glow that shall warm into friend- 
ships loyal and lasting, and which, gradually extending 
with the growth of the order, will tend to assist other 
fraternities. 

BEING SUDDENLY ASKED TO SPEAK 

This call is really a surprise. I am a very bashful 
man, but unfortunately am so constructed physically as to 
be unable to make people understand that I am back- 
ward about coming forward. If a bashful man knows 
he has to speak it just spoils all his fun; he can't enjoy 
the entertainment a bit until his part of it is over. If 
friends must expose my inability to talk well, thanks are 
due them for not letting me know I should be called up- 
on and allowing me to thoroughly enjoy myself up to 
this time. I have talked with men who have a reputa- 
tion as after-dinner speakers who assured me that they 
could not half enjoy a dinner while trying to pull togeth- 
er thoughts worth uttering at its close. 

It is said even of Chauncey Depew, that in company 
with ladies he was looking over a famous collection of 
paintings, among which was one of Daniel in th^ lion's 
den. One lady asked why it was that Daniel, who was 

111 



How to Speak in Public 

in great danger, should look so happy and contented. 
Mr. Depew said he thought Daniel appeared so happy 
because he knew that when the banquet was over he 
would not be called upon for an after-dinner speech. 
"A touch of nature makes the whole world kin.'* 
"There are others" who feel shaky about speech- 
making. 

A boy wrenched his leg, and his mother insisted on 
calling in an osteopath. This party manipulated the leg 
very freely and rather roughly for a time, then assuring 
the mother that he had everything in place and that the 
boy would soon be well, took his leave. The mother, 
thinking such manipulations must have been painful, 
complimented the boy on his courage and fortitude dur- 
ing the ordeal. The boy repHed: **You don't think I 
was fool enough to give that osteopath the sore leg." If 
not satisfied with my talk I can take refuge in claiming 
that the wrong leg was pulled. 

FAREWELL REMARKS 
At this parting banquet you call for farewell remarks, 
and since the time my wife surprised me kissing a pretty 
girl I've not been at such a loss for speech. My remarks 
on that occasion might have been appropriately alluded 
to as *'the infinity of silence." There is a saying that 
"out of a full heart the mouth speaketh," but I find it 
about as difficult to talk when the heqrt is full as when 
the breath is short. The "lump in the throat" is worse 
than a strangle hold." 

"There are billows far out on the ocean 
That never will break on the beach; 
So waves upon waves of emotion 
May find no expression in speech." 

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Ready-made Speechlets 

I find myself "too full for utterance" — full of grati- 
tude for many proofs of your friendship and esteem; full 
of regret for being under the necessity of severing my 
connection with **so goodly a company." What can I 
say that is fitting and worthy of this occasion? When 
most we feel, then are we least capable of giving our 
emotion vent in well chosen words. Elegant diction can 
seldom grace farewell remarks, for: *'Of all such speech 
the silent part is best; of all expression, that which can- 
not be expressed." What is harder to appropriately 
frame in words than the bitter-sweet of farewells? 

Friends, I thank you from the depths of my nature 
for this evening's manifestation of your kindly regard. I 
would be less than human if not deeply moved by it; less 
than human if I could fitly and fully express in words the 
emotions such kindly conduct engenders; only by ''put- 
ting yourselves in my place" can you imagine my feel- 
ings and fairly understand what I would but cannot say. 

"The ocean's deeps are mute; the shallows roar. 
Thought, sentiment, feeling are as the ocean; 
Words are but the bruit along the shore." 

I am about to leave you; I regret the going, but duty 
calls me to other fields where I hope to find friends as 
true, companions as pleasant as those I leave behind. 
But no matter what new ties may be formed, wherever 
business or duty may lead me, wherever I may roam, un- 
der whatever skies I may dwell, I assure you I shall re- 
member the good fellows here with gratitude for their 
kindliness, and will never cease to recall with pleasure 
the jolly times we have spent together. "Never can my 
soul forget the friends I found so cordial hearted." I 

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How to Speak in Public 

shall bear with me memories of pleasurable hours, rich in 
social joys and jewelled with pure delights that will glow 
through charmed air, soft as midsummer night's dewy 
breath, bright and constant as the stars. Moments like 
these may be '*as flowers that fade," but remembrance 
of them are a lasting perfume. 

TOAST— TO THE LADIES 

With my toast comes a great opportunity to lose both 
reputation and hair. The ladies have been and always 
will be a favorite theme for poets, painters, sculptors, 
song writers and speakers during moments of inspiration 
— or recklessness. However much I might desire to be so 
at this moment, I assure you I am not inspired, but just 
reckless enough to attempt ''making good" for the ap- 
portionment accorded me. 

It is said: *' God made man; male and female made 
He them." Ladies are the best, the very best, part of 
humankind. They are more womanly than just women, 
and their influence tends to make men more manly than 
mere men. The ladies have ever been the moulding, 
refining, purifying and elevating influence to make men 
and the world better and brighter. They are the ruling 
spirits of human society, the supreme queens of the uni- 
verse to whom men bow and for whom men plan, labor 
and dare. Even such a prince among men as the great 
lawyer and diplomat, Choate, when asked who he would 
rather be if not himself, cast his eyes about until they 
encountered the gaze of his wife, meekly bowed his head 
and said in a tone of abject submission: **I would rather 
be Mrs. Choate' s second husband." The big, courag- 



Ready-made Speechlets 

cous, lion-hearted man openly accepts the supremacy of 
some lady. Men who are brave, as well as those who 
are simply gallant, acknowledge the sway of the fair sex, 

and no toast will be more honored by loyal — 

than "to the ladies." We hold them dear not merely 
because they are the most expensive part of our outfit, 
but because we sincerely reverence them. 

To the mother who watched our cradle; whose bos- 
om pillowed our childhood; whose sheltering arms encir- 
cled our boyhood; whose advice and sympathy guided and 
encouraged our youth, and whose loving care extends 
even into our manhood. To the sister whose gentle af- 
fection for us, unchanged by the years, is as true today 
as when we were children of one household. To the 
dear girl whose sweetness, purity, truth and loyalty were 
as a glimpse of heaven to our budding and awkward 
manhood, and to whom we pledged our sacred troth. To 
the wife, our partner, mate, comrade, chum; the lady who 
confidingly placed her hand in ours, who keeps close, 
constant and uncomplainingly at our side; who minis- 
ters to our comforts, inspires, encourages, brightens, 
sympathizes with and betters us. To the daughter whose 
fond and jealous eye can see in us no littleness or fault: 
whose unalloyed affection is a solace and a safeguard. 
Let us ever revere and cherish these as the brightest 
jewels of earth, gracious gifts, blessings without com- 
pare. 

Let the toast then be to "The Ladies," 

All hearts that are manly approve; 

The toast, the toast is '^The Ladies," 

So give cheers for those whom you love; 

Hip! hip! hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! 

All cheer for The Ladies we love; 

Hip! hip! hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! 

lis 



How to Speak in Public 

STARTLETS FOR SPEECHLETS 

Friends: Being a very modest and bashful man 
such eulogistic introduction as has just been accorded 
me is really embarrassing. I am convinced that Brother 
Blank has somehovi^ either formed an extravagant and 
unwarranted opinion of me or has allowed the occasion, 
or that which goes with it, to influence him to the ex- 
tent of over-stating the actual facts, for he has so clothed 
the real with word-woven fanciful fabrics of rhetorical 
finery that I can hardly recognize myself in the gauzy 
attire. Bob Burdette tells us he tired of buying milk the 
cream of which went to the bottom instead of rising to 
the top, and decided to own a cow. He purchased 
what appeared to be a mild-mannered and docile lady 
bovine after seeing her milked once and being satisfied 
with the process and product. When milking time 
came, he repaired to the afore-mentioned lady bovine's 
presence to exact the lacteal tribute due. He confesses 
to being somewhat confused as to the subsequent events, 
but says he is quite sure he was pohte, and followed the 
ceremonious formula customary at such functions, and 
asked her cowship to so, and as far as he could determine 
she so'd. He then requested her to histe, and he is quite 
convinced that she histed, and he dolefully added, while 
tenderly feeling of his court plastered and bandaged 
bruises: **I am inclined to the opinion that she overdid 
the matter and put too much expression in it." Now I 
am inclined to think brother Blank overdid my introduc- 
tion; that he put too much expression in it. I am quite 
sure I shall not be able to meet all the expectations he 
has thus created of me. 

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Ready-made Speechlets 

An ignorant man announced himself as a candidate 
for the Legislature. "But you can't make a speech," 
objected a friend. "Oh that doesn't make any differ- 
ence," innocently responded the candidate, "for the 
House always elects a Speaker." Now I wish lodges 
could elect a speaker and relieve a bashful man from the 
embarrassments of such occasions as this. 

A great many years ago a very wise gentleman gave 
it as his opinion that "there is nothing new under the 
sun," and Josh Bilhngs, while "serving time" on earth 
indorsed Solomon's views when he said: "Mi private 
opinyun iz — that originality in writing waz plade out 
long ago and the very best enny man kan do iz to steal 
with good judgment." There are so many local and 
other occasions where speaking is on the program or 
is indulged in without previous notice, and so many 
speeches suitable to such occasions are cribbed, adapted, 
trimmed or redressed and repeated, it is difficult now- 
adays for one to say much that some one, at some time, 
has not already sprung at a similar occasion. Most of 
the stories and talks suitable for occasions Hke this have 
been told and heard, and are therefore considered "chest- 
nuts" by some present. About Thanksgiving time the 
turkey gobbler said he wasn't afraid to die, but being 
stuffed with chestnuts afterward made him nervous. 
These occasions are really enjoyable if it were not for 
fear of being called on to crack chestnuts for the crowd. 
As my cracker is out of order this evening, you will 
surely be kind enough to excuse me from working it. 

"A Swindle" is the name that appears over the office 
door of a struggling Izvryei in the city of Stratford, Ont. 

117 



How to Speak in Public 

A friend of the unfortunate gentleman suggested the ad- 
visability of his writing out his first name in full, thinking 
that Arthur or Andrew Swindle, as the case may be, 
would sound better and look better than the significant 
'A Swindle." When Swindle with tears in his eyes, 
whispered to him that his name was Adam, the friend 
understood and was silent. 

Now as your chairman has announced I will make a 
speech, and I feel that I am not ''up to" such an un- 
dertaking. I fear that the announcement, coupled with 
the fulfillment, may be labeled with the aforesaid unfor- 
tunate lawyer's name. Oh, no, you would not swear. 
You would only pronounce a proper name — a most proper 
name for a lawyer. Beecher said there were times when- 
one must swear or burst, and he did not believe in burst- 
ing. By simply ''calling up" our Canadian lawyer, you 
may on this occasion avoid both these extreme measures 
and still relieve yourselves of sentiments relative to any 
remarks being characterized as "a speech." 

I find myself, at this time, somewhat in the predica- 
ment of the stuttering chap who, by the rules of the club, 
had to make a speech, sing a song, or tell a story. He 
said: "F-f-f-fellows, Hke W-W-Washington, I c-c-can't 
t-t-t-tell a st-st-story; like Old Hickory, I c-c-can't s-sing, 
like Grant, I can't make a sp-sp-speech, but I can let a 
f-f-fellow make one for me. Brother Blank is just burst- 
ing to let loose a speech, so I will make way for him. 
[When so desired this can be arranged to end with a 
song or story instead of speech.] 

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Ready-made Speechlets 

The best way for me to assist in the speech-making 
is in the manner a lady assisted her husband in his liter- 
ary labors: 

Mrs. Penfield — "My husband has found a way by 
which he says I'm of the greatest assistance to him in his 
literary work." 

Mrs. Muchtalk — ''How nice that is, but how are you 
able to do it?" 

Mrs. Penfield — *'As soon as I see him at his desk I go 
into another room and keep perfectly quiet until he has 
finished." 

A society dude asked Miss Oldmaid if she thought 
marriage a failure. She answered: *'I don't know that 
marriuge is a failure, but I know of efforts in that direc- 
tion which have been," and she sighed dismally. I don't 
wish to intimate that speech-making on this occasion is 
a failure, but I am seriously concerned lest this effort at 
it will be. 

It is said when a Frenchman is intoxicated he wants 
to dance, a German to sing, a Spaniard to gamble, an 
Englishman to eat, an Italian to boast, an Irishman to 
fight, and an American to make a speech. I assure you 
all I am perfectly sober, and yet do not want to attempt 
a speech. Moreover, I suspect before I am through, 
few of you will be in a condition to wish me to try 
another. 

In answer to your call I rise with diffidence, 
and I will in all Hkelihood give you enough of it. 
I am capable of the worst kinds of oratorical somersaults. 

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How to Speak in Public 

I make no pretense to the gift of expression cr any other 
talent that assists to acceptable speech-making, and I 
have no desire to make a ridiculous show of myself by 
attempting something I am not fitted for. I enjoy 
speeches only when attempted or accomplished by others. 
My silent part is best. Of all expression, that which 
cannot be expressed is both my "long suit" and "trump." 
I am not afflicted with verbal plethora, therefore, have 
few words to spew over these occasions. I would like to 
acquit myself credibly when speech-making is in order, 
but fear I shall never be able to do so. I don't seem to 
be built that way. The quiz master asked a medical 
student to name the bones of the skull. He answered: 
"I have got them all in my head but carmot think of 
their names." Now my speeches are in my head, I ut 
tongue or lips cannot coax them out« 

A little girl on returning for the first time at church, 
was asked how she liked it. She saia she liked every- 
thing except the piece the minister spoke. I am afraid 
you will like everything about my speech except the 
piece I speak. 

An Irishman was accused by his master of treating 
the dog cruelly every morning so it howled. He pro- 
tested that he could not be cruel to any poor dumb 
creature; that he was ordered to cut off the puppy's tail, 
and not wanting to hurt him more than necessary, he 
cut off a little every morning to make it easy for him. 
To make it easy for you I will give you my "tale of woe" 
in sections — and finish some other time. 

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Ready-made Speechlets 

A certain widow had engaged to marry a bachelor 
doctor of the village. She called her little boy to her and 
said: "Willie, I am going to do something before long, 
and want to tell you about it. I am intending to marry 
Mr. Blank in a few days." Whereat Willie replied: 
"Bully for you, ma. Does Mr. Blank know it?" Your 
chairman has told you I would make a speech. I 
wish I knew it. However, I will do what I can at it. 

This unexpected call for a speech from me has just 
about upset me and spilled my ideas. It makes me feel 
very much Hke the lady who had just obtained a divorce 
"—completely unmanned. 

A minister called on one of the sisters who had a 
very large family that had recently been added to. As he 
was about to leave she suggested: "But you haven't 
seen my last baby." "No, he replied, "and I never ex- 
pect to." Now you haven't heard my last story, but 
here is the last one for to-night. 

A minister, after entering the pulpit, discovered he 
had left the notes prepared for his sermon at home. It 
was too late to send for them. In explaining his pr-edic- 
ament to the audience, he said he would have to depend 
on the Lord for something to say, but at the evening 
service he would come better prepared. Now I am not 
mean enough to pull the Lord into my scrape, but I 
would be glad to be better prepared for this occasion. 

FRATERNAL TOASTS 

Fraternity is embodied friendship; not visionary but 
real as truth; not abstract but incarnate. May each new 

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How to Speak in Public 

day be fraught with deeds of faith and love like those 
passed between David and Jonathan or Damon and 
Pythias, knitting their souls together in true friendship, 
beam upon you from our glorious order, as upon the 
pathway of the just, which ''shineth more and more un- 
to the perfect day." Realize the sublime stanza of 
Schiller : 

"Have love — not love for one, 
But man as man thy brother call, 
And scatter like the circling sun, 
Thy charities on all." 

Blessed be our order. It stands for the brotherhood 
of man and for the home around which clusters the 
tenderest and best sentiments of the human heart. Like 
the spirit of liberty enlightening the world, like fountains 
in the desert watering a favored spot of earth and im- 
parting fertility; like the Temple of Truth standing four- 
square to every wind that blows, its every act and prin- 
ciple in harmony with the highest planes of human 
thought, aspiration and life. 

"Men are' growing more fraternal, 
You can see it on the street, 
Indicated by the emblems worn 
By hundreds that you meet. 

Have you seen the button? 

Here it is upon my coat, 

And 'tis fraught with deeper meaning 

Than a passing glance would note." 

In closing I wish you all heavy purses and light hearts. 

"A friend in the morning, a sweetheart at night, 
To fill you with pleasure and blissful delight." 

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Ready-made Speechlets 

May you always look about you with pleasure and 
above with gratitude. 

May we always look upon the faults and frailities of 
others with the same eyes we look upon our own, and 
never forget that **to err is human, to forgive divine." 

May the best day that you have seen be the worst 
that is to come. 

Here's a toast to everybody; let none be sHghted. 

Let fraternity among all members pervade with its 
sweet and pleasing essence the entire atmosphere of this 
and other orders, hastening the day 

"When man to man the world over, 
Shall brother be and a' that." 

May peace, harmony and concord exist among all 
[here fill in the name of order] and may every idle dis- 
pute and frivolous distinction be buried in oblivion. 

May we be more ready to correct our own faults 
than to publish the errors of a brother. 

May unity, friendship and brotherly love ever distin- 
guish the brethren of our order. 

May we never condemn in a brother what we would 
excuse in ourselves. 

To every pure and faithful heart who acts the true 
— part. 

Let us toast every brother, both ancient and young 
who bridles his passions and governs his tongue. 

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How to Speak in Public 

May the hearts of agree, although 

their heads should differ. 

May every brother have a heart to feel and a hand to 
extend tovi^ard the stranger vv^ithin our lodge room. 

May prove as universal as it is honor- 
able and helpful. 

May v^^e never murmur without cause, or have cause 
to murmur. 

May no — — — make a sword of his tongue 

to wound the sensibilities or reputation of another. 

May we always part with regret and meet again with 
pleasure. 

May we always be able to look forward with pleasure 
and backward without regret. 

May all disagreements be written in sand and our 
friendships in marble. 

May j'^ou be crowned with length of days, and always 
command success by deserving it. 

TOASTS 

To present a toast at a home gathering, a social ses- 
sion of a fraternal order, or banquet table is a delightful 
accomplishment. There is always a demand for the one 
who is ever ready with an appropriate sentiment, and he 
who carries a pocket full of these roses of good cheer 
and love's messages, to throw to those around him, is 
certainly to be envied. Byron, that prince of toast- 

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Ready-made Speechlets 

makers, expounds the philosophy of pleasure in these 
words : 

"Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, 
Sermons and soda water the day after." 

Cassius, in the tent scene of Julius Caesar, exclaims 
to Brutus, 

"Give me a bowl of wine — in this I bury all unkindness." 

And thus again Cassius pours forth his love to 
Brutus: 

"My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge: 
Fill, Lucius, till the wine o'erswell the cup,— - 
I cannot drink too much of Brutus' love." 

We read of a fountain in Arabia upon whose basin is 
inscribed, * 'Drink and away," but how delicious is that 
hasty draught, and how long and brightly the thought of 
its transient refreshment dwells in the memory! Some 
believe in presenting a toast ir the red juice of a crushed 
grape, others in the crystal water of the mountain spring. 
"Wine, to strengthen friendship and light the flame of 
love," and "Water, bright, sparkling with glee, the gift 
of our God, and the drink of the free." 

"Here's to the one I love 
And may that one be he, 
Who loves but one, 
And may that one be me." 

FRATERNITY OPENS THE GATES OF 
OUR HEARTS 

Come, thou crown of speech. Come, thou charm 
of peace. Come, thou blessing of fraternity. Open the 
gates of our hearts. Lift the weight of our joy as we 

125 



How to Speak in PubKc 

provide fraternal insurance protection for our loved ones. 
Let it roll on and on until it w^ashes the unseen shores 
of eternity. — E. C. Spinney, President of Bankers' Union 
of the World, Omaha, Neb. 

THE SUN'S RAYS OF FRATERNITY 

May the influence of fraternal societies never wane; 
may their role of honor ever increase until all parts of the 
civilized w^orld shall be lighted and vi^armed by the sun 
rays of fraternity. — W, W. Dodge, Worthy President, 
Fraternal Order of Eagles, Aerie 150, Burlington, Iowa. 

Here's to those I love, 

Here's to those who love me, 

Here's to those who love those I love. 

And here's to those who love those who love me. 

— Famous Toast of Ouida. 

HARSH WORDS 

"Boys flying kites, haul in their white-winged birds, 
But you can't do that when you're flying words; 
Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes fall back dead, 
But God himself can't kill them when they're said." 

— Carleton 

Earth's noblest thing — a w^oman perfected. — LowelL 
TO MOTHER 

To the one who loves us when fortune's bright, 
But more when the sky's overcast; 
Whose heart reveals, yet more conceals, 
Our mother! first and last! 

There are three faithful friends — an old w^ife, an old 
dog, and ready money. — Poor Richard's Almanac. 

126 



Ready-made Speechlets 
RIP VAN WINKLE 

Here's to your good health, and your family's good health, 
And may you all live long and prosper. 

— Used by Joseph Jefferson. 

Here's to you, old friend, may you live a thousand years, 
Just to sort of cheer things in this vale of human tears; 
And may I live a thousand too — a thousand— less a day, 
'Cause I wouldn't care to be on earth and hear you'd passed 
away. 

Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to 
be picked in stranger's gardens. — Douglas Jerrold. 

TO THE NEXT MEETING 

Happy are we met, 
Happy have we been; 
Happy may we part. 
And happy meet again. 

TO YOU 

Here's to the girl that's good and sweet, 
Here's to the girl that's true. 
Here's to the girl that rules my heart — 
In other words, here's to you. 

TO EVERY FATE 

Here's a sigh for those who love me, 

And a smile for those who hate; 
And whatever sky's above me, 

Here's a heart for every fate. 

— Lord Byron 

127 



How to Speak in Public 
TO FATHER TIME 

I'll name a toast to you, I think, Old Father Time; 
There's none to whom I'd rather drink or rather rhyme, 
If. you'll give me, when I reach life's brink, 
Some farther time. 

The gladdest day that ever dawned 

This morning's sunrise brought; 
Past days are only shadows now; 

The future but a thought. 

TO THE CHURCH 

Unshaken as eternal hills, 

Immovable she stands: 
A mountain that shall fill the earth, 

A house not made with hands. 

— A. Cleveland Coxe 



■George Wither 



Hang Sorrow! Care will kill a cat — 
And therefore let's be merry. 



TO TO-DAY 

The gladdest place creation holds 
Is this bright world right here. 

For heaven is a far off hope, 
And hell is but a fear. 



TO TO-DAY 

Ah, my beloved, fill the cup that clears 

Today of past regrets and future fears; 
To-morrow! why to-morrow I may be 

Myself with yesterday's seven thousand years! 

— Omar Khayyam 

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TOASTS— PATRIOTIC 

Here's to the ships of our navy, 
Here's to the ladifca ol our land, 

May the former be well rigged, 
And the latter be well manned. 

Breathes there a man with soul so dead 

Who never to himself hath said, 

This is my own, my native land! 

Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd, 

As home his footsteps he hath turn'd. 

From wandering on a foreign strand! 

—Scott 

Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee. 
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears. 
Are all with thee, are all with thee. 

— Longfellow 

Sail on, O Ship of State! 
Sail on, O Union, strong and great! 
Humanity with all its fears, 
With all the hopes of future years. 
Is hanging breathless on thy fate! 

— Longfellow 

GOT THE BEST OF THEM ALL 

Benjamin Franklin was dining with a small party of 
distinguished gentlemen in Paris when one of them said: 
"Three nationalities are represented here this evening. 
I am French, my friend is English and Mr. Franklin is 
an American. Let each of us propose a toast." It was 

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How to Speak in Public 

agreed to and the Englishman, who was accorded first 
honors, arose, and, in the tone of a Briton bold, said: 
* 'Here's to Great Britain, the sun that gives Hght to all 
nations of the earth." The Frenchman was rather 
taken back at this, but he proposed: "Here's to France, 
the moon whose magic rays move the tides of the 
world." Franklin then arose with an air of quaint mod- 
esty, and said: ''Here's to our beloved George Wash- 
ington, the Joshua of America, who commanded the 
sun and moon to stand still — and they obeyed." 

THE ROYAL CORN 

Aye, the corn, the Royal Corn, 

Within whose yellow heart 

There is health and strength for all the nations. 

Gov. R. J. Ogles by, of Illinois 

THE SOUL 

The health of the soul is as precarious as that of the 
body, for when we seem the most secure from passions 
we are no less in danger of their infection than we are of 
falling ill when we appear to be in good health. 

Our enemies, in their judgment of us, come nearer to 
truth than we do to ourselves. 

None deserve the character of being good who have 
not spirit enough to be bad; goodness, for the most part, 
is eithe»- indolence or impotence. 

Self-love is the greatest of flatterers. 
130 



Ready-made Speechlets 
PARALLEL PROVERBS 

(ENGLISH AND JAPANESE) 

Too many cooks spoil the broth. 
Too many boatmen will run the boat on to a moun- 
tain. 

Accidents will happen in the best regulated families. 
Even a monkey sometimes falls from a tree. 

There is no accounting for tastes. 
Even a worm likes smartweed. 

A fountain cannot rise higher than its source. 
From the spawn of frogs there will be nothing but 
frogs. 

Out of evil good may come. 

The lotus springs from the slime in the pond. 

Avoid even the appearance of evil. 
Do not stop to tie your sandal in the melon patch of 
another. 

TO THE END 

May we all come to peaceful ends, 
And leave our debts unto our friends. 



131 



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Choice Se/ecf/ons 
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PART IV. 



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Masterpieces of Oratory, 
Poetry, Choice 
Selections, Etc. 



PART IV 

CHAPTER XIV 

Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, 
Choice Selections, Etc. 

In^ersoU at the Tomb of Napoleon 



READ CAREFULLY the following wonderful word 
picture by Ingersoll. Try and visualize each 
scene. Let the mental image of Napoleon dominate 
each picture. Note the ordering of thought and expres- 
sion increasing in significance, interest and intensity un- 
til the climax is reached. Note the contrast in the last 
paragraph between the peasant and Napoleon. Then 
memorize the entire selection by the principles of the 
Three Laws of Memory, using "Interrogative Analysis." 
Do not attempt to memorize this selection, or indeed 
any selection, without first forming in your mind a men- 
tal picture. Then repeat aloud the idea, the thought, 
the word picture of each sentence and ask and answer 
every question you can think of aloud. Do not mem- 
orize silently. If you cannot afford to disturb others at 
study by talking aloud, articulate with the lips and whis- 
per the words. This will do for all practical purposes. 

A little while ago I stood by the grave of the old Na- 
poleon — a magnificent tomb of gilt and gold, fit almost 
for a dead deity — and gazed upon the sarcophagus of 

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Tomb of Napoleon 



Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

rare and nameless marble, where rest at last the ashes of 
that restless man. I leaned over the balustrade and 
thought about the career of the greatest soldier of the 
modern world. 

I saw him walking upon the banks of the Seine, con- 
templating suicide. I saw him at Toulon — I saw him 
putting down the mob in the streets of Paris — I saw him 
at the head of the army of Italy — I saw him crossing the 
bridge of Lodi with the tricolor in his hand — I saw him 
in Egypt in the shadow of the pyramids — I saw him con- 
quer the Alps and mingle the eagles of France with the 
eagles of the crags. I saw him at Marengo — at Ulm 
and Austerlitz. I saw him in Russia, where the in- 
fantry of the snow and the cavalry of the wild blast scat- 
tered his legions hke winter's withered leaves. I saw 
him at Leipsic in defeat and disaster — driven by a million 
bayonets back upon Paris — clutched hke a wild beast — 
banished to Elba. I saw him escape and retake an em- 
pire by the force of his genius. I saw him upon the 
frightful field of Waterloo, where Chance and Fate com- 
bined to wreck the fortunes of their former king. And 
I saw him at St. Helena, with his hands crossed behind 
him, gazing out upon the sad and solemn sea. 

I thought of all the orphans and widows he had 
made — of the tears that had been shed for his glory, and 
of the only woman who ever loved him, pushed from his 
heart by the cold hand of ambition. And I said I would 
rather have been a French peasant and worn wooden 
shoes. I would rather have lived in a hut with a vine 
growing over the door, and the grapes growing purple in 
the amorous kisses of the autumn sun. I would rather 

133 



How to Speak in Public 

have been that poor peasant, with my loving wife by my 
side, knitting as the day died out of the sky, with my 
children upon my knees and their arms about me. I 
would rather have been this man and gone down to the 
tongueless silence of the dreamless dust, than to have 
been that imperial impersonation of force and murder 
known as Napoleon the Great. 

The following sketch of Thomas Jefferson was writ- 
ten by a pupil with no special literary experience or 
training. Although it is modeled on "Ingersoll's Tomb 
of Napoleon," it is most interesting and will encourage 
others to prepare like sketches. Let the ambitious stu- 
dent outline a sketch of George Washington on the 
same model. Paraphrasing, translating written thought 
into his own words as rapidly as possible is excellent 
practice. Popular poems, public speeches can all be 
treated in a similar manner. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON 

A short time ago I stood before that beautiful paint- 
ing, the Signing of the Declaration of Independence. 
My eyes passed from one patriot to another until they 
rested on a face which revealed benevolence and intelli- 
gence. It was that great commoner, Thomas Jefferson. 
I looked at that face and I reviewed the life of one of 
the greatest patriots of America. 

In imagination I saw him as a boy pursuing his favor- 
ite studies of mathematics and philosophy. I saw him 
as a young man in the House of Burgesses pulling up the 
roots of aristocracy by advocating the passage of the laws 
of entail and primogeniture. I saw him at that early 

134 



^ 
(/^* 




Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

day, eighty years before Lincoln's proclamation introduc- 
ing a bill for the emancipation of the slaves. I thought 
of the Declaration of Independence, that great American 
Magna Charta, the noblest and most daring assertion of 
the rights of man ever vi^ritten or uttered. I saw him as 
Governor of Virginia, plunging his steed through the 
pathless w^oods and escape from a regiment of pursuing 
red coats. I savv^ him in the Cabinet m.eetings battling 
against the aristocratic tendencies of Alexander Hamilton. 
I saw him become president of a republic in whose con- 
struction he was one of the principal architects, and I 
wondered at the marvellous foresight of this man, as I 
thought of the purchase of Louisiana. Louisiana, stretch- 
ing from the frontiers of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico; 
from the Mississippi River to the snow crested moun- 
tains of the west. Louisiana, drained by the Mississippi 
River and developed by the brain and muscle of the 
American pioneer has helped to place this nation in the 
front rank of nations. I also thought of the Lewis and 
Clark expedition into the unknown and untrodden wilds 
of the west and the spreading of the wings of the Ameri- 
can Eagle from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast. I saw 
him retire from public life to his beloved Monticello, 
loved and respected by his countrymen to whom he was 
ever generous and whose cause he was ever ready to de- 
fend. 

Now I heard the ringing of bells and the firing of 
cannon, proclaiming to the world the joy of millions of 
liberty-loving people, celebrating the birthday of a new 
nation. Now, the cannons roar change to deep groans 
and the bells seemed to say: "Alas, Thomas Jefferson's 
soul has passed away. 

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How to Speak in Public 

And I said to myself, as I gazed, I would rather have 
been Thomas Jefferson, living in pure democratic sim- 
plicity and whose life was filled with a continuous and 
earnest endeavor to elevate mankind, than to have been 
some foreign potentate of infinite power, surrounded by 
all the pleasures and luxuries of life. I would rather 
have been that great defender of religious and civil lib- 
erty, that first great emancipalor, that great champion of 
humanity's cause, than to have been Ivan the Terrible, 
imperious ruler of all the Russias, master of a nation of 
cowering serfs. 

INGERSOLL'S VISION OF THE WAR 

This selection, the peroration of a Decoration Day 
oration, has never been surpassed. IngersoU recited the 
whole from memory. He was a marvellous master of 
language and possessed a wonderful power for visualizing. 
He could enter into an exalted, dreamy mood and weave 
pictures of the past fascinating in the extreme. 

The past rises before me, as it were, like a dream. 
Again we are in the great struggle for national life. We 
hear the sounds of preparation — the music of boisterous 
drums — the silver voices of heroic bugles. We see thou- 
sands of assemblages, and hear the appeals of orators; we 
see the pale cheeks of women, and the flushed faces of 
men; and in those assemblages we see all the dead whose 
dust we have covered with flowers. We lose sight of 
them no more. We are with them when they enlist 
in the great army of freedom. We see them part with 
those they love. Some are walking for the last time in 
quiet, woody places, with the maidens they adote. We 

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Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

hear the whisperings and the sweet vows of eternal love 
as they lingeringly part forever. Others are bending 
over cradles, kissing babes that are asleep. Some are 
receiving the blessings of old men. Some are parting 
with mothers who hold them and press them to their 
hearts again and again, and say nothing. And some are 
talking with wives, and endeavoring with brave words, 
spoken in the old tones, to drive from their hearts the 
awful fear. We see them part. We see the wife stand- 
ing in the door with the babe in her arms — standing in 
the sunlight sobbing — at the turn of the road a hand 
waves — she answers by holding high in her loving arms 
the child. He is gone, and forever. 

We see them all as they march proudly away under 
the flaunting flags, keeping time to the grand, wild music 
of war— marching down the streets of the great cities — 
through the towns and across the prairies — down to the 
fields of glory, to do and to die for the eternal right. 

We go with them, one and all. We are by their 
side on all the gory fields — in all the hospitals of pain — 
on all the weary marches. We stand guard with them 
in the wild storm and under the quiet stars. We are 
with them in ravines running with blood — in the furrows 
of old fields. We are with them between contending 
hosts, unable to move, wild with thirst, the Hfe ebbing 
slowly away among the withered leaves. We see them 
pierced by balls and torn with shells, in the trenches, by 
forts, and in the whirlwind of the charge, where men be- 
come iron, with nerves of steel. 

We are with them in the prisons of hatred and famine; 
but human speech can never tell what they endured. 

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How to Speak in Public 

We are at home when the news comes that they are 
dead. We see the maiden in the shadow of her first 
sorrow. We see the silvered head of the old man bowed 
with the last grief. 

The past rises before us, and we see four millions of 
human beings governed by the lash — we see them bound 
hand and foot — we hear the strokes of cruel whips — we 
see the hounds tracking women through tangled swamps. 
We see babes sold from the breasts of mothers. Cruelty 
unspeakable! Outrage infinite! 

Four million bodies in chains — four million souls in 
fetters. All the sacred relations of wife, mother, father 
and child trampled beneath the brutal feet of might. 
And all this was done under our own beautiful banner of 
the free. 

The past rises before us. We hear the roar and 
shriek of the bursting shell. The broken fetters fall. 
These heroes die. We look. Instead of slaves we see 
men and women and children. The wand of progress 
touches the auction-block, the slave-pen, the whipping- 
post, and we see homes and firesides and school houses 
and books, and where all was want and crime and cruelty 
and fear we see the faces of the free. 

These heroes are dead. They died for liberty — they 
died for us. They *;re at rest. They sleep in the land 
they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless, 
under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful 
willows, and the embracing vines. They sleep beneath 
the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or 
storm, each in the wnndowless palace of Rest. Earth may 
run red with other wars — they are at peace. In the 

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Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

midst of battle, in the roar of conflict, they found the 
serenity of death. I have one sentiment for soldiers liv- 
ing and dead: Cheers for the living; tears for the dead. 



SPARTACUS TO THE GLADIATORS 

E. KELLOGG 

Contrast is a hw of memory by which any given idea 
or emotional state is made more striking by setting it 
over against its opposite. No greater contrast in litera- 
ture is afforded than in the following selection where 
Spartacus contrasts the touching picture of his happy, 
yoTithful life, with the ruin and desolation of his home 
after the invasion of the Romans. His voice is full of 
tenderness as he dwells upon his boyhood days and the 
loving care of his mother, but in an instant gives v/ay to 
violent rage as he recalls the murder of his father and 
mother and the ruin of his home. The author first con- 
trasts the quietness of the moon-silvered amphitheatre 
with the shouts of revelry and day of triumph just past. 

It had been a day of triumph in Capua. Lentulus, 
returning with victorious eagles, had amused the popu- 
lace with the sports of the amphitheatre to an extent 
hitherto unknown even in that luxurious city. The 
shouts of revelry had died away; the roar of the lion had 
ceased; the last loiterer had retired from the banquet, and 
the hghts in the palace of the victor were extinguished. 
The moon, piercing the tissue of fleecy clouds, silvered 
the dew-drops on the corselet of the Roman sentinel, 
and tipped the dark waters of the Vulturnus with a 
wavy, tremulous Hght. No sound was heard, save the 
last sob of some retiring wave, telling its story to the 

139 



How to Speak in Public 

smooth pebbles of the beach; and then all was still as 
the breast when the spirit has departed. In the deep 
recesses of the amphitheatre a band of gladiators were 
assembled, their muscles still knotted with the agony of 
conflict, the foam upon their lips, the scowl of battle yet 
lingering on their brows, when Spartacus, starting forth 
from amid the throng, thus addressed them: 

*'Ye call me chief; and ye do well to call him chief 
who, for twelve long years, has met upon the arena 
every shape of man or beast the broad empire of Rome 
could furnish, and who never yet lowered his arm. If 
there be one among you who can say that ever, in pubhc 
fight or private brawl, my actions did belie my tongue, 
let him stand forth and say it. If there be three in all 
your company dare face me on the bloody sands, let 
them come on. And yet I was not always thus, — a 
hired butcher, a savage chief of still more savage men ! 
My ancestors came from old Sparta, and settled among 
the vine-clad rocks and citron-groves of Syrasella. My 
early life ran quiet as the brooks by which I sported; 
and when at noon I gathered the sheep beneath the 
shade, and played upon the shepard's flute, there was a 
friend, the son of a neighbor, to join me in the pastime. 
We led our flocks to the same pasture, and partook to- 
gether of our rustic meal. One evening, after the sheep 
were folded, and we were all seated beneath the myrtle 
which shaded our cottage, my grandsire, an old man, 
was telling of Marathon and Leuctra, and how in 
ancient times, a little band of Spartans, in a defile of the 
mountains, had withstood a whole army. I did not 
then know what war was; but my cheeks burned, I 

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Masterpieces of Oratoiy, Poetry, Etc. 

knew not why, and I clasped the knees of that venerable 
man, until my mother, parting the hair from off my 
forehead, kissed my throbbing temples and bade me go 
to rest, and think no more of those old tales and savage 
wars. That very night the Romans landed on our 
coast. I saw the breast that had nourished me trampled 
by the hoof of the war-horse, and the bleeding body of 
my father flung amidst the blazing rafters of our dwell- 
ing ! 

'* To-day I killed a man in the arena, and when I 
broke his helmet-clasps, behold ! he was my friend. He 
knew me, smiled faintly, gasped, and died; — the same 
sweet smile upon his lips that I had marked, when in 
adventurous boyhood, we scaled the lofty cliff to pluck 
the first ripe grapes, and bear them home in childish 
triumph, I told the prastor that the dead man had been 
my friend, generous and brave, and I begged that I 
might bear away the body, to burn it on a funeral pile, 
and mourn over its ashes. Ay upon my knees, amid 
the dust and blood of the arena, I begged that poor 
boon, while all the assembled maids and matrons, and 
the holy virgins they call Vestals, and the rabble, shout- 
ed in derision, deeming it rare sport, forsooth, to see 
Rome's fiercest gladiator turn pale and tremble at sight 
of that piece of bleeding clay. And the praetor drew 
back as if I were pollution, and sternly said, *Let the 
carrion rot; there are no noble men but Romans,' 
And so fellow-gladiators, must you, and so must I, die 
like dogs. O Rome, Rome, thou hast been a tender 
nurse to me. Ay thou hast given to that poor, gentle, 
timid, shepherd lad, who never new a harsher tone than 

141 



How to Speak in Public 

a flute-note, muscles of iron and a heart of flint: taught 
him to drive the sword through plaited mail and hnks of 
rugged brass, and warm it in the marrow of his foe; — 
to gaze into the glaring eye-balls of the fierce Numidian 
lion, even as a boy upon a laughing girl. And he shall 
pay thee back, until the yellow Tiber is red as frothing 
wine, and in its deepest ooze thy life-blood Hes curdled. 
**Ye stand here now like giants, as ye are. The 
strength of brass is in your toughened sinews; but to- 
morrow some Roman Adonis, breathing sweet perfume 
from his curly locks, shall with his lily fingers pat your 
red brawn, and bet his sesterces upon your blood. Hark! 
hear ye yon Hon roaring in his den? 'Tis three days 
since he tasted flesh, but to-morrow he shall break his 
fast upon yours, — and a dainty meal for him ye will be ! 
If ye are beasts, then stand here like fat oxen, waiting 
for the butcher's knife! If ye are mejt, — follow me! 
Strike down yon guard, gain the mountain passes, and 
there do bloody work, as did your sires at old Thermo- 
pylae. Is Sparta dead ? Is the old Grecian spirit frozen 
in your veins, that you do crouch and cower like a be- 
labored hound beneath his master's lash? O comrades, 
warriors, Thracians, — if we must fight, let us fight for 
ourselves! If we must slaughter, let us slaughter our 
oppressors! If we must die, let it be under the clear sky, 
by the bright waters, in noble, honorable battle ! 



142 




The ''Mona Lisa'' of Leonardi da Vinci 



Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

THE MASTERPIECE OF GOD. 

ELBERT HUBBARD. 

Extract from an essay on Leonardo da Vinci in Volume X 
of ^' Little Journeys,*^ 

The "MonaLisa" of Leonardo da Vinci, the most famous 
portrait in the world, for which an offer of $5,000,000 is said to have 
been refused, has been as much a riddle as the sphinx itself. For 
four years, — 1501 to 1504 — Leonardo, friend of Francesco del Gio- 
condo, of Florence, spent his spare moments at work on the paint- 
ing. The model was Mona Lisa, third wife of Giocondo. The 
artist worked at the painting only when a certain expression ap- 
peared on his model's face, brought about by a peculiar strain of 
music. Leonardo sold the portrait to his patron Francis I, of 
France, who kept it locked jealously in his palace at Fontainbleau. 
On his death Louis XIV had it hung in his bed-chamber at 
Versailles. Following his demise it was transferred to the Louvre, 
where it since has attracted world-wide attention. 

"What is she smiling at?" ever has been the unsolved rid- 
dle. She has been declared the emanation of the intellectual, sen- 
timental and poetic power of her time, with all the mystery of the 
human soul and all its destiny. The painting is also called "La 
Joconde " or " Gioconda," and is known as the most perfect work 
of art ever produced. 

Among Da Vinci's other works the most famous are "The 
Last Supper," painted on the walls of Santa Maria della Grazie 
about 1498. It faded after about ten years, and has frequently 
been restored. 

The'human face is the masterpiece of God. 

A woman's smile may have in it more sublimity than 
a sunset; more pathos than a battle-scarred landscape; 
more warmth than the sun's bright rays; more love than 
words can say. The human face is the masterpiece of 
God. 

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How to Speak in Public 

The eyes reveal the soul, the mouth the flesh, the 
chin stands for purpose, the nose means will. But over 
and behind all is that fleeting Something we call "ex- 
pression." This Something is not set or fixed; it is 
fluid as the ether, changeful as the clouds that move in 
mysterious majesty across the surface of a summer sky, 
subtle as the sob of rustling leaves, — too faint at times 
for human ears, — elusive as the ripples that play hide- 
and-seek over the bosom of a placid lake. 

And yet men have caught expression and held it cap- 
tive. On the w^alls of the Louvre hangs the " Mona Lisa'* 
of Leonardo da Vinci. This picture has been for four 
hundred years an exasperation and an inspiration to 
every portrait-painter vi^ho has put brush to palette. 
Well does Walter Pater call it " The Despair of Paint- 
ers." The artist was over fifty years of age when he 
began the work, and he was four years in completing 
the task. 

Completing, did I say? Leonardo's dying regret 
was that he had not completed this picture. And yet 
we might say of it, as Ruskin said of Turner's work, 
**Byno conceivable stretch of the imagination can we 
say where this picture can be bettered or improved 
upon." 

There is in the face all you can read into it and 
nothing more. It gives you what you bring and noth- 
ing else. It is as silent as the lips of Memnon, as voice- 
less as the Sphinx. It suggests to you every joy that 
you have ever felt, every sorrow you have ever known, 
every triumph you have ever experienced. 

This woman is beautiful, just as all life is beautiful 
144 



Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

when we are in health. She has no quarrel with the 
world — she loves and she is loved again. No vain long- 
ing fills her heart, no feverish unrest disturbs her dreams, 
for her no crouching fears haunt the passing hours— that 
ineffable smile which plays around her mouth says plain- 
ly that hfe is good. And yet the circles about the eyes 
and the drooping lids hint of world-weariness and speak 
the message of Koheleth, and say, ''Vanity of vanities, 
all is vanity." 

"La Gioconda" is infinitely wise, for she has lived. 
That supreme poise is only possible to one who knows. 
All the experiences and emotions of manifold existence 
have etched and moulded that form and face until the 
body has become the perfect instrument of the soul. 

Back of her stretches her life, a mysterious purple 
shadow. Do you not see the palaces turned to dust, the 
broken columns, the sunken treasures, the creeping 
mosses, and the rank ooze of fretted waters that have 
undermined cities and turned kingdoms into desert seas? 
The galleys of pagan Greece have swung wide for her 
on the unforgetting tide, for her soul dwelt in the body 
of Helen of Troy, and Pallas Athene has followed her 
ways and whispered to her even the secrets of the gods. 
Aye! not only was she Helen, but she was Leda, the 
mother of Helen. Then she was St. Anne, mother of 
Mary; and next she was Mary, visited by an angel in a 
dream, and followed by the wise men who had seen the 
Star in the East. The centuries, that are but thoughts, 
found her a Vestal Virgin in Pagan Rome, when brutes 
were kings and lust stalked rampant through the streets. 
She was the bride of Christ and her fair frail body was 

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How to Speak in Public 

flung to the wild beasts, and torn limb from limb while 
the multitude feasted on the sight. 

True to the central impulse of her soul the Dark 
Ages rightly called her Cecilia, and then St. Cecilia, 
mother of sacred music, and later she ministered to men 
as Melania, the Nun of Tagaste ; next as the daughter 
of William the Conqueror, the Sister of Charity who 
went through Italy, Spain, and France, and taught the 
women of the nunneries how to sew, to weave, to em- 
broider, to illuminate books and make beauty, truth, and 
harmony manifest to human eyes. And so to this Lady 
of the Beautiful Hands stood to Leonardo as the em- 
bodiment of a perpetual life ; moving in a constantly 
ascending scale, gathering wisdom, graciousness, love, 
even as he himself in this life met every experience half- 
way and counted it joy, knowing that experience is the 
germ of power. 

Life writes its history upon the face, so that all those 
who have had a like experience read and understand. 
The human face is the m.asterpiece of God. 

ELMER E. ROGERS ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The speaker who succeeds in interesting an audience 
of children will have no trouble with older persons. Of 
all methods of acquiring the art of speaking impressively 
to an audience, attempting to interest children from five 
to fifteen years of age is the most helpful. The follow- 
ing address by Elmer E. Rogers, of the Chicago bar, 
was given under the auspices of The Lincoln Centennial 
Memorial Committee, before the Public Schools of 

146 



Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

Chicago. The subject was: "Lincoiu'v*^ Pluck and 
Luck— What About Ours ? " 

Principal, Teachers, Ladies and Gentlemen, Girls and Boys: 
The world first hears from us when we are born ; 
and sees the last of us when we die. What we do 
while in life is called Deeds, — good, bad, or otherwise. 
Our parents and friends remember us after we are gone. 
But if after we are dead we are remembered by our 
Ward, City, State, Nation or the World — why, that's 
Fame ! President Abraham Lincoln is Famous. 

That little log- cabin, backwood's boy (called by his 
chums Abe Linkern), now our deified martyr, enjoyed 
no schooling except the equivalent of a term or two; 
yet he figured actively in deeds of war, law, peace and 
politics, attaining distinction in each and all. From log 
hut, or shanty, to White House is a long political jump, 
yet Lincoln, the rail- splitter and athlete, spanned it! 
Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, Lin- 
coln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. Washing- 
ton was the "father of his country," Jelierson its 
organizer, and Lincoln its Conservator. 

Lincoln's birth occurred 100 years ago. 1809 was 
the birth year of many women and men wondrous wise 
and great. Lincoln was obliged to dress in clothing 
made from the skins of wild beasts; to live on roasted 
corn, hominy and "Johnny-cake." Nevertheless, he al- 
most committed to memory, as Bonaparte had done, Pil- 
grim's Progress, Robinson Crusoe, ^sop's Fables, Plu- 
tarch's Lives, and particularly Weem's Washington. 
Dennis Hanks and Abe said that they learned by "sight, 
scent and hearing." Lincoln was a school within him- 

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How to Speak in Public 

self, and despite misfortune, he lived to be honored with 
a degree by Princeton University. In the early times the 
teacher scarcely new beyond the "rule of three"; while 
any person with a knowlede of Latin was a neighborhood 
wonder; and a college graduate would have been a good 
drawing-card for a dime museum. 

President Lincoln had read of an attempt to make the 
Negro's skin white by persistent washing, which only 
gave him a cold from which he nearly died. Gave not 
Lincoln a cold but the negro. There is a better way, 
soliloquizes Lincoln; and so he set about to free the 
Slave, and sent Rebellion reehng to the grave. Lincoln 
and Lee were the greatest men involved in the Re- 
bellion. Lincoln's death was deplored as a great loss to 
the South during the period of reconstruction. Lincoln 
was one of the most bitterly assailed men in public life — 
by press and pubhc, and in cartoon — but President Lin- 
coln was one of the most speedy to recover his prestige. 
Mr. Lincoln deplored the harsh criticism and indiscrim- 
inate abuse of anybody as well as of public personages. 
Even assassination has never changed the trend of events 
in the world. 

No other country in the world presents such Oppor- 
tunities for the Boy and Girl of today as America. In 
the American Commonwealth we are informed that 
"America is only another Name for Opportunity." 
President Garfield once remarked that the best thing that 
could happen to a boy or girl was to get thrown over- 
board into the water; he never knew of one to drown 
who was worth saving. 

148 



Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

" Luck is only Pluck, 
In trying over and over; 
Patience and Will, 
Courage and Skill, 
Are the four leaves of Luck's clover." 

'Genius," says Thomas A. Edison, the great in- 
is partly /aspiration, but mostly /j^rspiration. 
"With Lincoln it w^as mostly perspiration. Gladstone 
and Mendelssohn, born the same year as Lincoln, had 
wealth and influence at their command, w^hile Lincoln 
had nothing but his own pluck to forge him to the 
front. 

Lincoln's name is in the Hall of Fame. Among the 
Greats ! To miss our object in life is not necessarily 
to fail. Henry Clay and WilHam J. Bryan thrice **run" 
for the presidency. Who will say that both are not 
great men? Br>^an is probably our most distinguished 
private citizen. Clay's and Bryan's lives are not failures. 
The world needs just such men to keep the balance 
wheel of civilization in balance. They are of much ser- 
vice to mankind. Lincoln himself proved to be a failure 
in "business." While running a store he was so deeply 
absorbed in books that the customers ate his apples and 
forgot to pay their bills. Artemus Ward once was 
patted on the head with the remark, " My boy, there is 
a great future before you." Abraham's stepmother had 
faith in Lincoln's great future, but while he was en- 
gaged in the business of storekeeping, it must have ap- 
peared to Lincoln that his future was mostly behind 
him. 

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How to Speak in Public 

But Lincoln was resourceful. Resourcefulness is a 
Great Secret of Success today as well as in the olden 
days. Somebody asked Lincoln how long a man's legs 
ought to be. Lincoln replied that he thought they 
ought to be about long enough to reach to the ground. 
Crook and Hook were two officers in the Civil War. 
Lincoln said, "Well, we'll win by Hook or Crook." 
During the war a delegation of prominent men came on 
from New York to plead with the President to send a 
warship to protect New York harbor, which proved that 
Lincoln was never abashed in the presence of distin» 
guished personages. The men said they represented 
hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property which 
must be protected. Lincoln replied that if he had as 
much money as they he believed he would build a warship 
himself and present it to the government. 

Study critically the careers of great and successful 
men and women. President McKinley is said to have 
made a careful study of the life work of the presidents 
who preceded him in his own efforts to reach the office 
of Chief Magistracy of our Republic. Carnegie offers 
some wholesome auWce on how to get on in the world. 
Instead of being a "jack-of-all-trades" he says, *'put all 
of your eggs in one basket and then watch the basket." 
This means to concentrate your efforts. We hear so 
much about finding that **lost speech" of Lincoln's. 
Most of our speakers are so different from Lincoln that 
before they have gone very far the audiences begin to 
wish that both the speakers and their speeches had got 
lost before they mounted the platform. Lincoln's habits 
of study, writing and speaking marked everything he 

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Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

said or wrote notable for its brevity. A good lesson for 
us of today. 

Three ideals I hold up for your emulation — Lincoln, 
Roosevelt, Bryan. All of these men are distinguished 
for exemplary characters. None, I believe, ever used 
liquor or tobacco, besides, they are good models in a 
multitude of characteristics. 

LIBERTY 

ELOQUENT TRIBUTE TO LIBERTY, BY HENRY GEORGE. 

Liberty came to a race of slaves crouching under 
Egyptian w^hips, and let them forth from the House of 
Bondage. She hardened them in the desert and made 
of them a race of conquerors. The free spirit of the 
Mosaic law took their thinkers up to heights where they 
beheld the unity of God, and inspired the poets with 
strains that yet phrase the highest exaltations of thought. 
Liberty dawned on the Phenician coast, and ships passed 
the Pillars of Hercules to plow the unknown sea. She 
shed a partial light on Greece, and marble grew to 
shapes of ideal beauty, words became the instruments of 
subtlest thought, and against scanty militia of free cities 
the countless hosts of the Great King broke like surges 
against a rock. She cast her beams on the four-acre 
farms of Italian husbandmen, and born of her strength a 
power came forth that conquered the world. They 
glinted from shields of Germany warriors, and Augustus 
wept his legions. Out of the night that followed her 
eclipse, her slanting rays fell again on free cities, and a 
lost learning revived; modern civilization began, a new 
world was unveiled; and as Liberty grew, so grew art, 

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How to Speak in Public 

wealth, power, knowledge and refinement. In the 
history of every nation we may read the same truth. It 
was strength born of Magna Charta that won Crecy and 
Agincourt. It was the revival of Liberty from the des- 
potism of the Tudors that glorified the Elizabethan age. 
It was the spirit that brought a crowned tyrant to the 
block, that planted here the seed of a mighty tree. 

GREATNESS OF THE UNIVERSE 

JEAN PAUL RICHTER 

One may search in vain through literature for a more beauti- 
ful description of the length and breadth, the height and depth of 
the universe, than is given in this extract. 

God called up a man into the vestibule of heaven, 
saying: "Come thou hither and see the glory of My 
house." And to the servants that stood around His 
throne He said: "Take him and undress him from the 
robes of flesh, cleanse his vision and put new breath into 
his nostrils ; only touch not with any change his human 
heart — the heart that weeps and trembles." 

It was done ; and, with a mighty angel for his guide, 
the man stood ready for his infinite voyage; and from 
the terraces of heaven, without sound or farewell, at 
once they wheeled into endless space. Sometimes, with 
solemn flight of angel wings, they fled through Saharas 
ot darkness, through wildernesses of death that divided 
the worlds of life; sometimes they swept along frontiers 
that were quickening under prophetic motion. Then 
from a distance that is counted only in heaven light 
dawned for a time through a sleepy film; by unutterable 
pace the light swept to them, they, by unutterable pace, 

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Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

to the light. In a moment the rushing of planets was 
upon them; in a moment the blazing of suns was around 
them. 

Then came eternities of twilight that revealed, but 
were not revealed. On the right hand and the left tow- 
ered mighty constellations; here were triumphal gates 
whose magnificent archways rose in altitude by spans 
that seemed ghostly from infinitude. Without measure 
were the architraves, past number were the archways, 
beyond memory the gates. Within were stairs that 
scaled the eternities below ; above was below — below 
was above to the man stripped of gravitating body — 
depth was swallowed up in height unsurmountable, 
height was swallowed up in depth unfathomable. 

Suddenly, as they thus rode from finite to infinite — 
suddenly, as they thus tilted over abysmal worlds — a 
mighty cry arose, that systems more mysterious, that 
constellations more glorious, that worlds more billov^r^, 
other heights and other depths were coming, were near- 
ing, were at hand ! 

Then the man sighed and stopped, shuddered and 
wept. His overburdened heart uttered itself in tears, 
and he said: "Angel, I will go no further. For the 
spirit of man acheth with this infinity. Insufferable is 
the glory of the universe. Let me lie down in the grave 
and hide myself from the persecution of the infinite, for 
end there is none." And from all the Hstening stars 
that shone around issued a choral voice: ''The man 
speaks truly; end there is none that even yet we have 
heard of. End there is none!" The angel solemnly 
demanded: "Is there no end, and is this the sorrow 

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How to Speak in Public 

that kills you?" But no voice answered, that he may 
answer himself. Then the angel throws up his glorious 
hands toward the heaven of heavens, saying: "End 
there is none in the universe of God. Lo ! also there 
was no beginning." 



READING FOR THE THOUGHT 

JOHN RUSKIN 

Especially valuable for analysis. 

When you come to a good book, you must ask your- 
self, "Am I inclined to work as an Australian miner 
would? Are my pickaxes and shovels in good order, 
and am I in good trim myself — my sleeves well up to the 
elbows, and my breath good, and my temper?" And 
keeping the figure a little longer, even at the cost of 
tiresomeness, for it is a thoroughly useful one, the metal 
you are in search of being the author's mind or mean- 
ing, his words are as the rock which you have to crush 
and smelt in order to get at it. And your pickaxes are 
your own care, wit, and learning; your smelting furnace 
is your own thoughtful soul. Do not hope to get at any 
good author's meaning without those tools and that fire. 
Often you will need sharpest, finest chiselling and pa- 
tientest fusing before you can gather one grain of the 
metal. 

And, therefore, first of all, I tell you earnestly and 
authoritatively (I know I am right in this), you must get 
into the habit of looking intensely at words, and assur- 
ing yourself of their meaning, syllable by syllable — nay, 
letter by letter. For, though it is only by reason of the 

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Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

opposition of letters in the function of signs to sounds, 
in the function of signs that the study of books is called 
"literature," and that a man versed in it is called, by 
the consent of nations, a man of letters, instead of a man 
of books or of words, you may yet connect with that ac- 
cidental nomenclature this real fact — that you might 
read all the books in the British Museum (if you could 
live long enough) and remain an utterly illiterate, un- 
educated person; but that if you read ten pages of a 
good book letter by letter, that is to say, with real 
accuracy, you are forevermore in some measure an edu- 
cated person. The entire difference between education 
and non-education (as regards the merely intellectual 
part of it) consists in this accuracy. A well educated 
gentlemen may not know many languages, may not be 
able to speak any but his own, may have read very few 
books. But whatever language he knows, he knows 
precisely ; whatever word he pronounces he pronounces 
rightly. Above all, he is learned in the peerage of words, 
knows the words of true descent and ancient blood, at a 
glance, from words of modern canaille; remembers all 
their ancestry, their intermarriages, distant relationships, 
and the extent to which they were admitted, and ofHces 
they held among the national noblesse of words at any 
time and in any country. But an educated person may 
know, by memory, many languages, and talk them all, 
and yet truly know not a word of any — not a word even 
of his own. An ordinarily clever and sensible seaman 
will be able to make his way ashore at most ports; 
yet he has only to speak a sentence of any language to be 
known for an illiterate person. So also the accent, or 

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How to Speak in Public 

turn of expression of a single sentence, will at once 
mark a scholar. And this is so strongly felt, so con- 
clusively admitted, by educated persons, that a false ac- 
cent or a mistaken syllable is enough, in the parliament 
of any civilized nation, to assign to a man a certain degree 
of inferior standing forever. 



LIBERTY OR DEATH 

Patrick Henry's impulsive outburst just previous to 
the breaking out of our War of Independence is the 
sublimity of patriotism. This is a portion of it: 

It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of 
Hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful 
truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she trans- 
forms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, en- 
gaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are 
we disposed to be of the number of those who, having 
eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things 
which so nearly concern our temporal salvation? For 
my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am 
willing to know the whole truth — to know the worst, 
and to provide for it ! 

They tell us, sir, that we are weak — unable to cope 
with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be 
stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? 
Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a 
British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall 
we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall 
we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying 
supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom 

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Patrick Henry Delivering His Celebrated Speech 



Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and 
foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of 
those means which the God of nature hath placed in our 
power. 

Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of 
liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, 
are invincible by any force which our enemy can send 
against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles 
alone. There is a just God who presides over the des- 
tinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight 
our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong 
alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, 
sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to 
desire it, it is nov/ too late to retire from the contest. 
There is no retreat but in submission and slavery ! Our 
chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the 
plains of Boston! The war is inevitable; and let it come! 
I repeat it, sir, let it come! 

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentle- 
men may cry, peace, peace! — but there is no peace. The 
war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from 
the North will bring to our ears the clash of resounding 
arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why 
stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? 
What would they have? Is Hfe so dear, or peace so 
sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and 
slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what 
course others may take; but, for me, give me liberty, or 
give me death! 



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How to Speak in Public 
ORIENT YOURSELF 

HORACE MANN 

The Germans and French have a beautiful phrase 
which would enrich any language that should adopt it. 
They say: ^'to orient;'^ or, ''to orient o?ie's self* 

When a traveler arrives at a strange city, or is over- 
taken by night or by a storm, he takes out his compass 
and learns which way is the East, or Orient. Forthwith 
all the cardinal points — east, west, north, south — take 
their true places in his mind, and he is in no danger of 
seeking for the sunset or the polestar in the wrong quar- 
ter of the heavens. He orients himself. 

When commanders of armies approach each other for 
the battle, on which the fate of empires may depend, 
each learns the localities of the ground — how best he 
can intrench his front or cover his flank, how best he 
can make a sally or repel an assault. He orients himself. 

When a statesman revolves some mighty scheme of 
administrative policy, so vast as to comprehend sur- 
rounding nations and later times in its ample scope, he 
takes an inventory of his resources, he adapts means to 
ends, he adjusts plans and movements so that one shall 
not counter-work another, and he marshals the whole 
series of affairs for producing the grand results. He 
orients himself. 

Young man! open your heart before me for one mo- 
ment, and let me write upon it these parting words. 
The gracious God has just called you into being; and, 
during the few years you have lived, the greatest lesson 
you have learned is, that you shall never die. All around 

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Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

your body the earth lies open and free, and you can go 
where you will; all around your spirit the universe lies 
open and free, and you can go where you will. Orient 
yourself\ 

Orient Yourself! Seek frivolous and elusive 
pleasures if you will; expend your immortal energies up- 
on ignoble and fallacious joys; but know, their end is in- 
tellectual imbecility, and the perishing of every good that 
can ennoble or emparadise the human heart. Obey, if 
you will, the law of the baser passions — appetite, pride, 
selfishness — but know, they will scourge you into realms 
where the air is hot with fiery-tongued scorpions, that 
will sting and torment your soul into unutterable agonies! 
But study and obey the sublime laws on which the frame 
of nature was constructed; study and obey the sublimer 
laws on which the soul of man was formed; and the full- 
ness of the power and the wisdom and the blessedness, 
with which God has filled and lighted up this resplend- 
ent universe, shall all be yours! 



"THE TREE OUR OLDEST SERVANT" 

GOVERNOR STUBBS, OF KANSAS 

The genial days of spring call to our memory again 
the duty we owe to tha: ancient and useful friend of 
man — the tree. 

In all the ages of the world it's true to our interest 
and loyal to our service. It has furnished the cradles and 
coffins of our ancestors; it has given comfort and shelter 
to the peasant and the prince — to the poor man and the 
potentate. 

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How to Speak in Public 

Trees have always figured in our divine and patriotic 
relations. Among them the religion of man was born. 
Groves were the first cathedrals of our race. Birds, 
singing in their branches, gave us the first idea of sacred 
music and the choir. God planted them in Eden for 
the sustenance of the first parents. From their leaves 
were fashioned the first garments that covered their 
nakedness. When God's displeasure threatened the ex- 
tinction of our race Noah looked into the forest and 
found there means of salvation. It was under that oak 
that Jehovah conversed with a great man in Israel. It 
was in the tree tops that David heard the voice of the 
Lord. It was among the palms of the Garden of Geth- 
semane that Jesus spent the last evening of his life. The 
battle for American freedom was consummated under the 
apple tree of Appomattox. 



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Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc 
THE ISLE OF LONG AGO 

BENJAMIN F. TAYLOR 

The leading idea of any group or word picture must 
first be fixed in the mind and then the association, the 
relation sought after. In the following poem the result 
is secur'^d by asking questions and answering them as 
directed m Part III, of The Dickson Lessons on Mem- 
ory, * 'Interrogative Analysis:" 

(1) To what is Time compared? (2) What kind 
of a stream? (3) Why? (4) Where does the stream 
flow? (5) In what manner does it flow? (6) Define 
rhythm and rhyme. (7) What does Time blend with? 
These are but few of the many questions that may be 
asked and answered. After this interrogative analysis, 
close the eyes and picture silently a river, a long river, 
one that you have seen before. Observe the perspective. 
As we cannot imagine Time to have had any beginning, 
so we cannot see the source of the river. The River 
Time did not originate in this hfe, but was flowing long 
before. The reader will recall many scenes in his own 
life that will suggest a flood of remembrances. This 
habit of mental vision if persevered in will always enable 
you to see everything in the boldest relief. In calling up 
each vision to the mind wait patiently until it arrives. 
Afterward fill in the detail. 

O a wonderful stream is the river Time, 

As it runs through the realm of tears, 
With a faultless rhythm and a musical rhyme, 
And a boundless sweep and a surge sublime, 

As it blends with the Ocean of Years. 

How the Winters are drifting, like fiakes of snow, 

And the summers like buds between, 
And the year in the sheaf; so they come and they go, 
On the river's breast, with its ebb and flow, 

As it glides in the shadow and sheen. 

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How to Speak in Public 

There's a magical isle up the river Time, 

Where the softest of airs are playing; 
There's a cloudless sky and a tropical clime, 
And a song as sweet as a vesper chime, 

And the Junes with the roses are straying. 

And the name of that Isle is the Long Ago, 

And we bury our treasures there ; 
There are brows of beauty and bosoms of snow; 
There are heaps of dust — but we loved them so! 

There are trinkets and tresses of hair. 

There are fragments of song that nobody sings. 

And a part of an infant's prayer; 
There's a lute unswept, and a harp without strings; 
There are broken vows and pieces of rings. 

And the garments that she used to wear. 

There are hands that are waved when the fairy shore 

By the mirage is lifted in air; 
And we sometimes hear through the turbulent roar 
Sweet voices we heard in the days gone before, 

When the wind down the river is fair. 

O, remember'd for aye be the blessed Isle, 

All the day of our life until night; 
When the evening comes with its beautiful smile, 
And our eyes are closing to slumber awhile, 

May that "Greenwood" of Soul be in sight! 



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Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 
THANATOPSIS 

This exquisite poem of Bryant's was written at the 
age of eighteen. It was at Cummington, Mass., the 
poet's birthplace, during his wanderings in the primseval 
forests, where gigantic trunks of fallen trees lay decay- 
ing, and where silent rivulets flowed through mossy 
banks, and mountains of dead leaves — suggesting to the 
poet's mind the most remote antiquity, that Bryant con- 
ceived the idea of depicting the future state of man. The 
poet represents that generation after generation of the 
human race, as they pass away, find an "eternal resting 
place" in the bosom of the Earth, who thus claims the 
form she has nourished with her fruits, and mixes it *'for 
ever with the elements." The universality of mortal 
fate is depicted with a serious iteration and impressive- 
ness which operate with reconciling force. 

To him who, in the love of Nature, holds 
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks 
A various language: for his gayer hours 
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile 
And eloquence of beauty; and she glides 
Into his darker musings, with a mild 
And healing sympathy, that steals away 
Their sharpness, ere he is aware. When thoughts 
Of the last bitter hour come like a blight 
Over thy spirit, and sad images 
Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall. 
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house. 
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart. 
Go forth under the open sky, and list 
To Nature's teachings, while from all around — 
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air — 
Comes a still voice — Yet a few days, and thee 
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How to Speak in Public 

The all-beholding sun shall see no more 

In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground, 

Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears, 

Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist 

Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim 

Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again; 

And, lost each human trace, surrendering up 

Thine individual being, shalt thou go 

To mix forever with the elements; 

To be a brother to the insensible rock. 

And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain 

Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak 

Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mould. 

Yet not to thine eternal resting place 

Shalt thou retire alone — nor couldst thou wish 

Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down 

With patriarchs of the infant world — with kings, 

The powerful of the earth — the wise, the good, 

Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past. 

All in one mighty sepulcher. The hills. 

Rock-ribbed, and ancient as the sun ; the vales 

Stretching in pensive quietness between ; 

The venerable woods; rivers that move 

In majesty, and the complaining brooks, 

That make the meadows green; and, poured round all, 

Old ocean's gray and melancholy waste — 

Are but the solemn decorations all 

Of the great tomb of man ! . . . 

... As the long train 

Of ages glides away, the sons of men — 

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Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

The youth in life's green spring, and he who goes 
In the full strength of years, matron and maid, 
And the sweet babe and the gray-headed man — 
Shall, one by one, be gathered to thy side. 
By those who in their turn shall follow them. 

So live, that when thy summons comes, to join 
The innumerable caravan, that moves 
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and Hes down to pleasant dreams. 



THE COUNTRY CHURCHYARD 

BY THOMAS GRAY 

Thomas Gray, known to every school boy as the au- 
thor of the " Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," 
was born in London, Dec. 26, 1716, and died at Cam- 
bridge, England, July 30, 1771. In English literary his- 
tory he is noted as having refused the poet laureateship. 
Much of his later life was spent at Stoke Pogis, where 
he found the scene which inspired his immortal poem. 
It is difficult to make a selection from a poem where all 
is as good as in the " Elegy," but the stanzas below are 
those which certainly none ought to fail to know. 

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 

Awaits alike the inevitable hour, 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 

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Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, 
If memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise, 

Where, through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault, 
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise. 

Can storied urn or animated bust 

Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath ? 

Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust. 
Or flattery soothe the dull cold ear of death? 

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; 

Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed, 
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre. 

But knowledge to their eyes her ample page, 
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll; 

Chill penury repressed their noble rage. 
And froze the genial current of the soul. 

Full many a gem of purest ray serene 

The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear; 

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 
And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 



AS I CAME DOWN FROM LEBANON 

CLINTON SCOLLARD 

As I came down from Lebanon, 
Came winding, wandering slowly down 
Through mountain passes bleak and brown, 
The cloudless day was well-nigh done. 
In emerald, showed each minaret 
Afire with radiant beams of sun. 
And glistened orange, fig and lime. 
Where song birds made melodious chime, 
As I came down from Lebanon. 

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Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

As I came down from Lebanon, 
Like lava in the dying glow, 
Through olive orchards far below 
I saw the murmuring river run; 
And 'neath the wall upon the sand 
Swart sheiks from distant Samarcand, 
With precious spices they had won. 
Lay long and languidly in wait 
Til! they might pass the guarded gate. 
As I came down from Lebanon. 

As I came down from Lebanon, 
I saw strange men from lands afar, 
In mosque and square and gay bazar. 
The Magi that the Moslem shun, 
And grave Effendi from Stamboul, 
Who sherbet sipped from corners cool; 
And, from the balconies o'errun 
With roses, gleamed the eyes of those 
Who dwell in still seraglios. 
As I came down from Lebanon, 

As I came down from Lebanon, 
The flaming flower of daytime died, 
And night, arrayed as is a bride 
Of some great king, in garments spun 
Of purple and the finest gold, 
Outbloomed in glories manifold 
Until the moon, above the dun 
And darkening desert, void of shade. 
Shone like a keen Damascus blade, 
As I came down from Lebanon. 



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How to Speak in Public 
PICTURES OF MEMORY 

ALICE GARY 

Among the beautiful pictures 

That hang on Memory's wall, 
Is one of a dim old forest, 

That seemeth best of all. 
Not for its gnarl'd oaks olden, 

Dark with the mistletoe; 
Not for the violets golden 

That sprinkle the vale below; 
Not for the milk-white lilies 

That lean from the fragrant ledge, 
Coquetting all day with the sunbeams, 

And stealing their golden edge; 
Not for the vines on the upland 

Where the bright red berries rest, 
Nor the pinks, nor the pale, sweet cowslip. 

It seemeth to me the best. 

I once had a little brother 

With eyes that were dark and deep ; 
In the lap of that dim old forest, 

He lieth in peace asleep. 
Light as the down of the thistle, 

Free as the winds that blow, 
We roved there the beautiful summers, 

The summers of long ago; 
But his feet on the hills grew weary. 

And, one of the autumn eves, 
I made for my little brother 

A bed of the yellow leaves. 

Sweetly his pale arms folded 

My neck in a meek embrace, 
As the light of immortal beauty 

Silently cover' d his face; 

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Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

And when the arrows of sunset 
Lodged in the tree-tops bright, 

He fell, in his saint-like beauty, 
Asleep by the gates of light. 

Therefore, of all the pictures 
That hang on Memory's wall, 

The one of the dim old forest 
Seemeth the best of all. 



SANDALPHON 

H. W. LONGFELLOW 

Have you read in the Talmud of old, 
In the Legends the Rabbins have told 

Of the limitless realms of the air, 
Have you read it — the marvellous story 
.Of Sandalphon, the Angel of Glory, 

Sandalphon, the Angel of Prayer? 

How, erect, at the outermost gates 
Of the City Celestial he waits. 

With his feet on the ladder of light, 
That, crowded with angels unnumber'd^ 
By Jacob was seen, as he slumber'd 

Alone in the desert at night? 

The Angels of Wind and of Fire 
Chant only one hymn, and expire 

With the song's irresistible stress; 
Expire in their rapture and wonder, 
As harp-strings are broken asunder 

By music they throb to express. 



169 



How to Speak in Public 

But, serene in the rapturous throng, 
Unmoved by the rush of the song, 

With eyes unimpassion'd and slow, 
Among the dead angels, the deathless 
Sandalphon stands listening, breathless. 
To sounds that ascend from below ; — 

From the spirits on Earth that adore. 
From the souls that entreat and implore 

In the fervour and passion of prayer ; 
From the hearts that are broken with losses 
And weary with dragging the crosses 

Too heavy for mortals to bear. 

And he gathers the prayers as he stands. 
And they change into flowers in his hands, 

Into garlands of purple and red; 
And beneath the great arch of the portal. 
Through the streets of the City Immortal 

Is wafted the fragrance they shed. 

It is but a legend, I know — 
A fable, a phantom, a show, 

Of the ancient Rabbinical lore : 
Yet the old mediaeval tradition. 
The beautiful, strange superstition. 

But haunts me and holds me the more. 
When I look from my window at night. 
And the welkin above is all white. 

All throbbing and panting with stars, 
Among them majestic is standing 
Sandalphon the angel, expanding 

His pinions in nebulous bars. 
And the legend, I feel, is a part 
Of the hunger and thirst of the heart, 

The frenzy and fire of the brain. 
That grasps at the fruitage forbidden, 
The golden pomegranates of Eden, 

To quiet its fever and pain. 

170 



Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS 

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, 

Sails the unshadowed main — 

The venturous bark that flings 
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings 
In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings, 

And coral reefs lie bare, 
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. 

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl — 

Wrecked is the ship of pearl ! 

And every chambered cell, 
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell. 
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell, 

Before thee lies revealed — 
Its irised ceiling rent, it sunless crypt unsealed ■ 

Year after year beheld the silent toil 

That spreads his lustrous coil ; 

Still, as the spiral grew, 
He left the past year's dwelling for the new, 
Stole with soft step its shining archway through. 

Built up its idle door. 
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more. 

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, 

Child of the wandering sea, 

Cast from her lap forlorn ! 
From thy dead lips a clearer note is borne 
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn ! 

While on mine ear it rings, 
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings: 

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll ! 

Leave thy low-vaulted past ! 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last. 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast. 

Till thou at length art free. 
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea! 



171 



How to Speak in Public 
THE PROMISED LAND TO-MORROW 

GERALD MASSEY 

High hopes that burned like stars sublime, 

Go down the heavens of freedom; 
And true hearts perish in the time 

We bitterliest need them. 
But never sit we down and say: 

"There's nothing left but sorrow;" 
We walk the wilderness to-day, 

The promised land to-morrow. 

Our birds of song are silent now, 

There are no flowers blooming; 
But life beats in the frozen bough, 

And freedom's spring is coming; 
And freedom's tide comes up alway, 

Though we may strand in sorrow; 
And our good bark, aground to-day, 

Shall float again to-morrow. 

Our hearts brood o'er the past; our eyes 
With smihng futures glisten; 

Lo, now the dawn bursts up the skies- 
Lean out your souls and listen. 

The earth rolls freedom's radiant way, 
And ripens with our sorrow; 

And 'tis the martyrdom today 
Gives victory to-morrow. 

'Tis weary watching wave by wave; 

And yet the tide heaves onward; 
We climb like corals grave by grave 

Yet beat a pathway sunward. 
We're beaten back m many a fray, 

Yet newer strength we borrow; 
And where our vanguard rests to-day 

Our rear shall rest to-morrow. 



172 



Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

Through all the long, dark night of years 

The people's cry ascended; 
The earth was wet with blood and tears, 

Ere their meek sufferings ended. 
The few shall not forever sway, 

The many toil in sorrow; 
The bars of hell are strong to-day, 

But Christ shall rise to-morrow. 

Then youth, flame-earnest, still aspire 

With energies immortal! 
To many a haven of desire 

Your yearning opes a portal. 
And though age wearies by the way, 

And hearts break in the furrow, 
We sow the golden grain to-day, 

The harvest comes to-morrow. 



THE SCULPTOR BOY 

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 

Chisel in hand stood a sculptor boy. 

With his marble block before him; 
And his face lit up with a smile of joy 

As an angel dream passed o'er him. 
He carved that dream on the yielding stone 

With many a sharp incision; 
In heaven's own light the sculptor shone, 

He had caught that angel vision. 

Sculptors of life are we, as we stand 

With our lives uncarved before us. 
Waiting the hour when, at God's command. 

Our life-dream passes o*er us. 
Let us carve it, then, on the yielding stone 

With many a sharp incision; 
Its heavenly beauty shall be our own — 

Our lives, that angel vision. 

173 



How to Speak in Public 

COLUMBUS 

JOAQUIN MILLER 

This selection Is one of the best short poems of Joaquin 
Miller. In fact, one of the best short poems by any Ameri- 
can author, expressing as it does the true American spirit. 

Behind him lay the gray Azores, 

Behind the Gates of Hercules; 
Before him not the ghosts of shores, 

Before him only shoreless seas. 
The good mate said: "Now must we pray, 

For lo ! the very stars are gone. 
"Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?" 

"Why, say 'sail on ! sail on ! and on !' " 

"My men grow mutinous day by day; 

My men grow ghastly wan and weak." 
The stout mate thought of home; a spray 

Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. 
"What shall I say, brave Admiral, say. 

If we sight naught by seas at dawn?" 
"Why, you shall say at break of day, 

'Sail on ! sail on ! and on !' " 

They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow, 

Until at last the blanched mate said, 
"Why, now not even God would know 

Should I and all my men fall dead. 
These very winds forget their way, 

For God from these dread seas is gone. 
Now speak, brave Admiral, speak and say" — 

He said: "Sail on! sail on! and on!" 

They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate: 

"This mad sea shows his teeth to-night. 
He curls his Hp, he lies in wait. 

With lifted teeth, as if to bite! 
Brave Admiral, say but one good word: 

What shall we do when hope is gone?" 
The words leapt like a leaping sword; — 

"Sail on ! sail on ! and on !" 

174 




Columbus on the Deck of the Saiita Maria 



Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Etc. 

Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck, 

And peered through darkness. Ah, that night 
Of all dark nights ! And then a speck — 

A light! A light! A light! A light! 
It grew, a starlit flag unfurled ! 

It grew to be Times' burst of dawn, 
He gained a world ; he gave that world 

Its grandest lesson ; "On ! sail on !" 

THE IMMORTALITY OF SONG 

EDWIN MARKHAM 
(Author of "The Man With the Hoe," and Other Poems.) 

In his deep breast the kingly poet bears 

Eternity, the stir of mystic tides ; 
And so the thing he touches ever wears 

Some mark of the Eternal, and abides. 

The kingdoms crumble and the banners go : 
More real than they is Richard's ghostly dream, 

lago's smile, the sigh of Romeo, 

Or that thin song of "Willow" by the stream. 

There is no chart of Prospero's secret isle 
Where Ariel made a comrade of the bee; 

Yet to some sun it will forever smile. 
And listen to the music of some sea. 

Huron may waste and Andes bow with time, 
Yet that green Wood of Arden will stay fair, — 

Still will Orlando weave his tender rhyme, 
And fill the forest with his sweet despair. 

While empires sink to shadow and depart, 

Miranda, Juliet, Imogen, all pure 
And folded in the memory of the heart, 

Live on in Song's eternity secure. 

175 



How to Speak in Public 

And that frail cloud that Shelley saw go by — 

It will not crumble, it will never fade: 
Now is it blown about a magic sky, 

And all hearts tremble to its flying shade. 
That skylark, soaring in the fields apart, 

Passed through his soul, and now the whole world 
hears : 
Now the glad bird that caroled to his heart 

Scatters its silver music on the years. 
As long as Chimborazo's summit keeps 

Its ancient vigil in the lonely skies, 
There will be violets where Shakespeare sleeps, 

And leaves alive with light where Shelley lies. 

COMMITTING TO MEMORY 
The advantages of committing to memory pas- 
sages of real excellence are many. If a thing is read 
but once or twice there is very little to think over — 
indeed much reading destroys thinking, just as two 
pictures on the same negative blur each other. Selec- 
tions from Shakespeare, the Bible, fine passages of 
prose and poetry, carefully memorized, furnish the 
mind with material, create a taste for good literature, 
give ease and facility of speech, and wealth and beau- 
ty of expression. The careful memorizer sees shades of 
meaning and a hannony of the whole, which escapes 
the careless reader. 

A principal of a city High School recently sent out 
questions to many prominent citizens, asking among 
other things, what influence, if any, beautiful memor- 
ized thoughts had had upon their lives. The testimony 
was almost universal in attributing a greater success in 
life to the noble selections coinmitted to memory when 

176 



Masterpieces of Oratory, Poetry, Elc^ 

they were young. In every case there was some refer- 
ence to the beauty in which the thought was clothed. 

If a poem is chosen for memorizing it should be 
short. 

If the poem is a long one, only so much of it should 
be memorized as contains the illuminating point of the 
selection. This ''Illuminating Point" is always a noble 
thought, nobly expressed. 

Gray's "Elegy" has been called a perfect piece of 
literature, but it is too long to be committed in its en- 
tirety — the illuminating points are confined to a half 
dozen brilliant stanzas, which may be found on pages 
165 and 166. 

An ideal length for a complete poem is found in 
^uch as "Sandalphon," page 169; 'The Chambered 
Nautilus," page 171 ; "The Promised Land Tomorrow," 
page 172; "Columbus," page 174, and others in this 
book. 

Let the student memorize one of these short poems 
each week, memorizing them even so well that they 
may be repeated backward if need be. The words and 
phrases will come naturally into daily use, and in a few 
weeks the student will find his vocabulary wonderfully 
enlarged. He will discover how much easier it is to 
speak a homely, useful English tongue. 

These memorized selections should be often re- 
viewed, for a thing to be fixed permanently in the mind, 
must be forgotten and relearned several times. 



W 



Self-Improvement Through 
Public Speaking 

and 

If You Can Talk Well 



BY 



DR. ORISON SWETT HARDEN 

Whose books on inspiration and self-help are famous the world 

overy and praised by men and women in every 

station of life^ from, the toiling laborer 

to the ruler of a great nation 



CHICAGO 

Dickson School of Memory 
auditorium bldg. 



^enti ^onr ^pttc^ a little 
Ie0t it map mar pour tortuiu 
— &Jake0peare 



180 



Self -Improvement Through Public 
Speaking 

By Dr. Orison Swett Marden. 

IT does not matter whether he wants to be a pub- 
lic speaker or not, a person should have such 

complete control of himself, should be so self- 
reliant and self-poised, that he can get up in any 
audience, no matter how large or formidable, and 
express his thoughts clearly and distinctly. 

Self-expression in some manner is the only means 
of developing mental power. It may be in music ; 
it may be on canvas; it may be through oratory; it 
may come through selling goods or writing a book; 
but it must come through self-expression. 

Self-expression in any legitimate form tends to 
call out what is in a man, his resourcefulness, inven- 
tiveness; but no other form of self-expression de- 
velops a man so thoroughly and so effectively, and 
so quickly unfolds all of his powers, as speaking 
before an audience. 

It is doubtful whether anyone can reach the highest 
standard of culture without studying the art of ex- 
pression, especially public vocal expression. In all 
ages oratory has been regarded as the highest ex- 

181 



How to Speak in Public 

pression of human achievement. Young- people, no 
matter what they intend to be, whether blacksmith or 
farmer, merchant or physician, should make it a study. 

Nothing else will call out what is in a man so 
quickly and so effectively as the constant effort to 
do his best in speaking before an audience. When 
one undertakes to think on his feet and speak extem- 
poraneously before the public, the power and the 
skill of the entire man are put to a severe test. 

The practice of public speaking, the effort to 
marshal all one's forces in a logical and forceful 
manner, to bring to a focus all the power one pos- 
sesses, is a great awakener of all the faculties. The 
sense of power that comes from holding the attention, 
stirring the emotions, or convincing the reason of an 
audience, gives self-confidence, assurance, self-reliance, 
arouses ambition and tends to make one more effective 
in every way. 

One's judgment, education, manhood, character, 
all the things that go to make a man what he is, are 
being unrolled like a panorama in his effort to express 
himself. Every mental faculty is quickened, every 
power of thought and expression stirred and spurred. 
The speaker summons all his reserves of experience, 
of knowledge, of natural or acquired ability, and 
masses all his forces in the endeavor to express him- 
self with power and to capture the approval and ap- 
plause of his audience. 

A writer has the advantage of being able to wait 
for his moods. He can write when he feels like it; 
and he knows that he can burn his manuscript again 

182 



Self-Improvement Thru' Public Speaking 

and again if it does not suit him. There are not a 
thousand eyes upon him. He does not have a great 
audience criticizing every sentence, weighing every 
thought. He does not have to step upon the scales 
of every Hstener's judgment to be weighed, as does 
the orator. He may write as Hstlessly as he pleases, 
use much or little of his br-ain or energy, just as he 
chooses or feels like doing. No one is watching him. 
His pride and vanity are not touched, and what he 
writes may never be seen by anyone. Then, there is 
always a chance for revision. In music, whether vocal 
or instrumental, what one gives out is only partially 
one's own; the rest is the composer's. In conversa- 
tion, we do not feel that so much depends upon our 
words; only a few persons hear them, and perhaps 
no one will ever think of them again. But when a 
person attempts to speak before an audience, all props 
are knocked out from under him; he has nothing to 
lean upon, he can get no assistance, no advice; he 
must find all his resources in himself ; he stands abso- 
lutely alone. He may have millions of money, broad 
acres of land, and may live in a palace, but none of 
these avail him now ; his memory, his experience, his 
education, his ability, are all he has ; he must be 
measured by what he says, what he reveals of himself 
in his speech; he must stand or fall in the estimation 
of his audience. 

Anyone who lays any claim to culture should train 
himself to think on his feet, so that he can at a 
moment's notice rise and express himself intelligently. 
The occasions for after-dinner speaking are increas- 

183 



How to Speak in Public 

ing enormously. A great many questions which once 
were settled in the office are now discussed and dis- 
posed of at dinners. All sorts of business deals are 
now carried through at dinners. There was never 
before any such demand for dinner oratory as to-day. 

We know men who have, by dint of hard work 
and persistent grit, lifted themselves into positions 
of prominence, and yet they are not able to stand 
on their feet in public, even to make a few remarks 
or to put a motion, without trembling like an aspen 
leaf. They had plenty of opportunities when they 
were young, at school, in debating clubs, to get rid 
of their self-consciousness and to acquire ease and 
facility in public speaking, but they always shrank 
from every opportunity, because they were timid, or 
felt that somebody else could handle the debate or 
questions better. 

There are plenty of business men to-day who 
would give a great deal of money if they could only 
go back and improve the early opportunities for learn- 
ing to think and speak on their feet which they threw 
away. Now they have money, they have position, but 
they are nobodies when called upon to speak in public. 
All they can do is to look foolish, blush, stammer out 
an apology, and sit down. 

Some time ago I was at a public meeting when 
a man who stands very high in the community, who 
is king in his specialty, was called upon to give his 
opinion upon the matter under consideration, and he 
got up and trembled and stammered and could scarcely 
say his soul was his own. He could not even make a 

184 



Self-Improvement Thru' Public Speaking 

decent appearance. He had power and a great deal 
of experience, but there he stood, as helpless as a 
child, and he felt cheap, mortified, embarrassed. Prob- 
ably he would have given anything if he had early 
in life trained himself to speak extemporaneously, so 
that he could think on his feet and say with power 
and effectiveness that which he knew. 

At the very meeting where this strong man, who 
had the respect and confidence of everybody who 
knew him, had made such a miserable failure of his 
attempt to give his opinion upon the important public 
matter on which he was well posted, a shallow-brained 
business man of the same city who hadn't a hundredth 
part of the other man's practical power in affairs, 
got up and made a brilliant speech, and strangers 
no doubt thought that he was much the stronger man. 
He had simply cultivated the ability to say his best 
thing on his feet, and the other man had not. 

A brilliant young man in New York, who has 
climbed to a responsible position in a very short time, 
tells me that he has been surprised on several occa- 
sions when he has been called upon to speak at 
banquets, or at other public functions, at the new 
discoveries he has made of himself of power which 
he never before dreamed he possessed, and he now 
regrets more than anything else that he has in the 
past allowed so many opportunities for calling him- 
self out to go by. 

The eft'ort to express one's ideas in lucid, clean- 
cut, concise, telling English tends to make one's every- 
day language choicer and more direct, and to improve 

185 



How to Speak in Public 

one's diction generally. In this and other ways 
speech-making develops mental power and character. 
This explains the rapidity with which a young man 
develops in school or college when he begins to take 
part in public debates or in debating societies. 

Every man, says Lord Chesterfield, may choose 
good words instead of bad ones and speak properly 
instead of improperly ; he may have grace in his mo- 
tions and gestures, and may be a very agreeable 
instead of disagreeable speaker if he will take care 
and pains. 

It is a matter of painstaking and preparation. 
There is everything in learning what you wish to 
know. Your vocal culture, manner, and mental fur- 
nishing, are to be made a matter for thought and 
careful, training. 

In thinking on one's feet before an audience, one 
must think quickly, vigorously, effectively. At the 
same time he must speak through a properly modu- 
lated voice, with proper facial and bodily expression 
and gesture. This requires practice in early life. 

Nothing will tire an audience more quickly than 
monotony, everything expressed on the same dead 
level. There must be variety ; the human mind tires 
very quickly when this is not supplied. 

This is especially true of a monotonous tone. It 
is a great art to be able to raise and lower the voice 
with sweet flowing cadences which please the ear. 

Gladstone said: "Ninety-nine men in every hun- 
dred never rise above mediocrity because the training 

186 



Self-Improvement Thru' Public Speaking 

of the voice is entirely neglected and considered of 
no importance." 

An early training for effective speaking will make 
one careful to secure a good vocabulary by good 
reading and a dictionary. One must know words. 

Close, compact statement is imperative. Learn to 
stop when you get through. Do not keep stringing 
out conversation or argument after you have made 
your point. You only neutralize the good impression 
you have made, weaken your case, and prejudice 
people against you for your lack of tact, good judg- 
ment, or sense of proportion. 

The attempt to become a good public speaker is 
a great awakener of all the mental faculties. The 
sense of power that comes from holding the attention, 
stirring the emotions or convincing the reason of an 
audience, gives self-confidence, assurance, self-reliance, 
arouses ambition, and tends to make one more effective 
in every particular. One's manhood, character, learn- 
ing, judgment of his opinions— all things that go to 
make him what he is — are being unrolled like a pan- 
orama. Every mental faculty is quickened, every 
power of thought and expression spurred. Thoughts 
rush lor utterance, words press for choice. The 
speaker summons all his reserves of education, of 
experience, of natural or acquired ability, and masses 
all his forces in the endeavor to capture the approval 
and applause of the audience. 

Such an effort takes hold of the entire nature, 
beads the brow, fires the eye, flushes the cheek, and 
sends the blood surging through the veins. Dormant 

187 



How to Speak in Public 

impulses are stirred, half- forgotten memories revived, 
the imagination quickened to see figures and similes 
that v^^ould never come to calm thought. 

This forced awakening of the whole personality 
has effects reaching much further than the oratorical 
occasion. The effort to marshal all one's reserves in 
a logical and orderly manner, to bring to the front 
all the power one possesses, leaves these reserves per- 
manently better in hand, more readily in reach. 

The Debating Club is the nursery of orators. No 
matter how far you have to go to attend it, or how 
much trouble it is, or how difficult it is to get the time, 
the drill you will get by it is often the turning point. 
Lincoln, Wilson, Webster, Choate, Clay, and Patrick 
Henry got their training in the old-fashioned Debating 
Society. 

Do not think that because you do not know any- 
thing about parliamentary law you should not accept 
the presidency of your club or debating society, or 
take an active part. This is just the place to learn, 
and when you have accepted the position you can 
post yourself on the rules, and the chances are that 
you will never know the rules until you are thrust 
into the chair where you will be obliged to give rul- 
ings. Join just as many young people's organiza- 
tions — especially self-improvement organizations — as 
you can, and force yourself to speak every time you 
get a chance. If the chance does not come to you, 
make it. Jump to your feet and say something upon 
every question that is up for discussion. Do not be 
afraid to rise to put a motion or to second it or to 

188 



Self-Improvement Thru' Public Speaking 

give your opinion upon it. Do not wait until you are 
better prepared. You never will be. 

Every time you rise to your feet will increase your 
confidence, and after a while you will form the habit 
of speaking until it will be as easy as anything else. 
There is no one thing which will develop young people 
so rapidly and effectively as debating clubs and dis- 
cussions of all sorts. A vast number of our public 
men have owed their advance more to the old-fash- 
ioned debating societies than anything else. Here 
they learned confidence, self-reliance; they discovered 
themselves. It was here they learned not to be afraid 
of themselves, to express their opinions with force 
and independence. Nothing will call a young man 
out more than the struggle to hold his own in a debate. 
It is strong, vigorous exercise for the mind just as 
wrestling is for the body. 

Do not remain way back on the rear seat. Go 
up front. Do not be afraid to show yourself. This 
shrinking into a corner and getting out of sight and 
avoiding publicity is fatal to self-confidence. 

It is so easy and tempting, especially for boys and 
girls in school or college, to shrink from the public 
debates or speaking, on the ground that they are not 
quite well enough educated at present. They want to 
wait until they can use a little better grammar, until 
they have read more history and more literature, until 
they have gained a little more culture and ease of 
manner. 

But the way to acquire grace, ease, facility, the 
way to get poise and balance so that you will not feel 

189 



How to Speak in Public 

disturbed in public gatherings, is to get the experi- 
ence. Do the thing so many times that it will become 
second nature to you. If you have an invitation to 
speak, no matter how much you may shrink from it, 
or how timid or shy you may be, resolve that you 
will not let this opportunity for self-enlargement slip 
by you. 

I know of a young man who has a great deal of 
natural ability for public speaking, and yet he is so 
timid that he always shrinks from accepting invita- 
tions to speak at banquets or in public because he is 
so afraid that he has not had experience enough. 
He lacks confidence in himself. He is so proud, and 
so afraid that he will make some slip which will 
mortify him, that he has waited and waited and waited 
until now he is discouraged and thinks that he will 
never be able to do anything in public speaking at all. 
He would give anything in the world if he had only 
accepted all of the invitations he has had, because 
then he would have profited by experience. It would 
have been a thousand times better for him to have made 
a mistake, or even to have broken down entirely a few 
times, than to have missed the scores of opportunities 
which would undoubtedly have made a strong public 
speaker of him. 

What is technically called "stage fright" is very 
common. A college boy recited an address "To the 
conscript fathers." His professor asked, — "Is that the 
way Caesar would have spoken it?" "Yes," he re- 
plied, "if Caesar had been scared half to death, and as 



190 



Self-Improvement Thru' Public Speaking 

An almost fatal timidity seizes on an inexperienced 
person when he knows that all eyes are watching him, 
that everybody in his audience is trying to measure 
and weigh him, studying him, scrutinizing him to see 
how much there is in him, for what he stands, and 
making up their minds whether he measures more or 
less than they expected. 

Some men are constitutionally sensitive and so 
afraid of being gazed at that they don't dare open 
their mouths, even when a question in which they 
are deeply interested and on which they have strong 
views is being discussed. At debating clubs, meet- 
ings of literary societies, or gatherings of any kind, 
they sit dumb, longing, yet fearing to speak. The 
sound of their own voices, if they should get on their 
feet to make a motion or to speak in a public gather- 
ing, would paralyze them. The mere thought of 
asserting themselves, of putting forward their views 
or opinions on any subject as being worthy of atten- 
tion, or as valuable as those of their companions, 
makes them blush and shrink more into themselves. 

This timidity is often, however, not so much the 
fear of one's audience, as the fear lest one can make 
no suitable expression of his thought. 

The hardest thing for the public speaker to over- 
come is self-consciousness. Those terrible eyes which 
pierce him through and through, which are measuring 
him, criticizing him, are very difficult to get out of his 
consciousness. 

But no orator can make a great impression until 
he gets rid of himself, until he can absolutely annihi- 

191 



How to Speak in Public 

late his self-consciousness, forget himself in his speech. 
While he is wondering what kind of an impression 
he is making, what people think of him, his power 
is crippled, and his speech to that extent will be 
mechanical, wooden. 

Even a partial failure on the platform has good 
results, for it often arouses a determination to con- 
quer the next time, which never leaves one. Demos- 
thenes' heroic efforts, and Disraeli's "The time will 
come when you will hear me," are historic examples. 

It is not the speech, but the man behind the speech, 
that wins a way to the front. 

One man carries weight because he Is himself the 
embodiment of power, he is himself convinced of what 
he says. There is nothing of the negative, the doubt- 
ful, the uncertain in his nature. He not only knows 
a thing, but he knows that he knows it. His opinion 
carries with it the entire weight of his being. The 
whole man gives consent to his judgment. He him- 
self is In his conviction, in his act. 

One of the most entrancing speakers I have ever 
listened to — a man to hear whom people would go 
long distances and stand for hours to get admission 
to the hall where he spoke — never was able to get 
the confidence of his audience because he lacked char- 
acter. People liked to be swayed by his eloquence. 
There was a great charm in the cadences of his per- 
fect sentences. But somehow they could not believe 
what he said. 

The orator must be sincere. The public is very 
quick to see through shams. If the audience sees 

192 



Self-Improvement Thru' Public Speaking 

mud at the bottom of your eye, that you are not honest 
yourself, that you are acting, they will not take any 
stock in you. 

It is not enough to say a pleasing thing, an inter- 
esting thing, the orator must be able to convince ; and 
to convince others he must himself have strong con- 
victions. 

Very few people ever rise to their greatest possi- 
bilities or ever know their entire power unless con- 
fronted by some great occasion. We are as much 
amazed as others are when, in some great emergency, 
we outdo ourselves. Somehow the power that stands 
behind us in the silence, in the depths of our natures, 
comes to our relief, intensifies our faculties a thou- 
sandfold and enables us to do things which before 
we thought impossible. 

It would be difficult to estimate the great part 
which practical drill in oratory may play in one's life. 

Great occasions, when nations have been in peril, 
have developed and brought out some of the greatest 
orators of the world. Cicero, Mirabeau, Patrick 
Henry, Webster, and John Bright might all be called 
to witness to this fact. 

The occasion had much to do with the greatest 
speech delivered in the United States Senate — Web- 
ster's reply to Hayne. Webster had no time for imme- 
diate preparation, but the occasion brought out all 
the reserves in this giant, and he towered so far above 
his opponent that Hayne looked like a pygmy in com- 
parison. 

The pen has discovered many a genius, but the 
193 



How to Speak in Public 

process is slower and less effective than the great 
occasion that discovers the orator. Every crisis calls 
out ability previously undeveloped and perhaps un- 
suspected. 

No orator living was ever great enough to give 
out the same power and force and magnetism to an 
empty hall, to empty seats, that he could give to an 
audience capable of being fired by his theme. In the 
presence of the audience lies a fascination, an inde- 
finable magnetism that stimulates all the mental facul- 
ties, and acts as a tonic and vitalizer. An orator can 
say before an audience what he could not possibly 
have said before he went on the platform, just as we 
can often say to a friend in animated conversation 
things which we could not possibly say when alone. 
As when two chemicals are united, a new substance 
is formed from the combination which did not exist 
in either alone, he feels surging through his brain 
the combined force of his audience, which he calls 
inspiration, a mighty power which did not exist in 
his own personality. 

Actors tell us that there is an indescribable inspira- 
tion which comes from the orchestra, the footlights, 
the audience, which it is impossible to feel at a cold 
mechanical rehearsal. There is something in a great 
sea of expectant faces which awakens the ambition 
and arouses the reserve of power which can never be 
felt except before an audience. The power was there 
just the same before, but it was not aroused. 

In the presence of a great orator, the audience is 
absolutely in his power. They laugh or cry as he 

194 



Self-Improvement Thru' Public Speaking 

pleases, or rise and fall at his bidding, until he releases 
them from the magic spell. 

What is oratory but to stir the blood of all hearers, 
to so arouse their emotions that they cannot control 
themselves a moment longer without taking the action 
to which they are impelled? 

"His words are laws" may be well said of the 
statesman whose orations sway the world. What art 
is greater than that of changing the minds of men? 

Wendell Phillips so played upon the emotions, so 
changed the convictions of Southerners who hated 
him, but who were curious to listen to his oratory, that 
for the time being he almost persuaded them that they 
were in the wrong. I have seen him when it seemed 
to me that he was almost godlike in his power. With 
the ease of a master he swayed his audience. Some 
who hated him in the slavery days were there, and 
they could not resist cheering him. 

When James Russell Lowell was a student, said 
Wetmore Story, he and Story went to Faneuil Hall 
to hear Webster, They meant to hoot him for his 
remaining in Tyler's cabinet. It would be easy, they 
reasoned, to get the three thousand people to join 
them. When he began, Lowell turned pale, and Story 
livid. His great eyes, they thought, were fixed on 
them. His opening words changed their scorn to 
admiration, and their contempt to respect. 

"He gave us a glimpse into the Holy of Holies," 
said another student, in relating his experience in 
listening to a great preacher. 



195 



IF YOU CAN TALK WELL 

By Dr. Orison Swett Marden. 

A good conversationalist is one who has ideas, who reads, 
thinks, listens, and who has therefore something to say. — 
Sir Walter Scott. 

WHEN Charles W. Eliot was president of 
Harvard, he said, "I recognize but one men- 
tal acquisition as an essential part of the 
education of a lady or gentleman, namely, an accu- 
rate and refined use of the mother-tongue." 

There is no other one thing which enables us to 
make so good an impression, especially upon those 
who do not know us thoroughly, as the ability to 
converse well. 

To be a good conversationalist, able to interest 
people, to rivet their attention, to draw them to you 
naturally, by the very superiority of your conversa- 
tional ability, is to be the possessor of a very great 
accomplishment, one which is superior to all others. 
It not only helps you to make a good impression upon 
strangers, it also helps you to make and keep friends. 
It opens doors and softens hearts. It makes you in- 
teresting in all sorts of company. It helps you to 
get on in the world. It sends you clients, patients, 
customers. It helps you into the best society, even 
though you are poor. 

196 



If You Can Talk Well 

A man who can talk well, who has the art of 
putting things in an attractive way, who can interest 
others immediately by his power of speech, has a 
very great advantage over one who may know more 
than he, but w^ho cannot express himself with ease or 
eloquence. 

No matter how expert you may be in any other 
art or accomplishment, you cannot use your expert- 
ness always and everywhere as you can the power to 
converse well. If you are a m.usician, no matter how 
talented you may be, or how many years you may 
have spent in perfecting yourself in your specialty, or 
how much it may have cost you, only comparatively 
few people can ever hear or appreciate your music. 

You may be a fine singer, and yet travel around 
the world without having an opportunity of showing 
your accomplishment, or without anyone guessing 
your specialty. But wherever you go and in what- 
ever society you are, no matter what your station in 
life may be, you talk. 

You may be a painter, you may have spent years 
with great masters, and yet, unless you have very 
marked ability so that your pictures are hung in the 
salons or in the great art galleries, comparatively few 
people will ever see them. But if you are an artist 
in conversation, everyone who comes in contact with 
you will see your life-picture, which you have been 
painting ever since you began to talk. Everyone 
knows whether you are an artist or a bungler. 

In fact, you may have a great many accomplish- 
ments which people occasionally see or enjoy, and 

197 



How to Speak in Public 

you may have a very beautiful home and a lot of 
property w^hich comparatively few^ people ever know 
about ; but if you are a good converser, everyone with 
whom you talk will feel the influence of your skill 
and charm. 

A noted society leader, who has been very suc- 
cessful in the launching of debutantes in society, al- 
ways gives this advice to her proteges, ''Talk, talk. 
It does not matter much what you say, but chatter 
away lightly and gayly. Nothing embarrasses and 
bores the average man so much as a girl who has to 
be entertained." 

The way to learn to talk is to talk. The tempta- 
tion for people who are unaccustomed to society, and 
who feel diffident, is to say nothing themselves and 
listen to what others say. 

Good talkers are always sought after in society. 
Everybody wants to invite Mrs. So-and-So to dinners 
or receptions because she is such a good talker. She 
entertains. She may have many defects, but people 
enjoy her society because she can talk well. 

Conversation, if used as an educator, is a tre- 
mendous power developer; but talking without think- 
ing, without an effort to express oneself with clear- 
ness, conciseness, or efficiency, mere chattering, or 
gossiping, the average society small talk, will never 
get hold of the best thing in a man. It lies too deep 
for such superficial eflfort. 

Nothing else will indicate your fineness or coarse- 
ness of culture, your breeding or lack of it, so quickly 
as your conversation. It will tell your whole life's 

198 



If You Can Talk Well 

story. What you say, and how you say it, will betray 
all your secrets, will give the world your true measure. 

There is no other accomplishment or acquirement 
which you can use so constantly and effectively, which 
will give so much pleasure to your friends, as fine 
conversation. There is no doubt that the gift of lan- 
guage was intended to be a much greater accomplish- 
ment than the majority of us have ever made of it. 

Most of us are bunglers in our conversation, be- 
cause we do not make an art of it; we do not take 
the trouble or pains to learn to talk well. We do 
not read enough or think enough. Most of us ex- 
press ourselves in sloppy, slipshod English, because 
it is so much easier to do so than it is to think before 
we speak, to make an effort to express ourselves with 
elegance, ease, and power. 

Poor conversers excuse themselves for not trying 
to improve by saying that ''good talkers are born, not 
made." We might as well say that good lawyers, 
good physicians, or good merchants are born, not 
made. None of them would ever get very far with- 
out hard work. This is the price of all achievement 
that is of value. 

Many a man owes his advancement very largely 
to his ability to converse well. The ability to interest 
people in your conversation, to hold them, is a great 
powder. The n^an who bungles in his expression, who 
knows a thing, but never can put it in logical, inter- 
esting, or commanding language, is always placed at a 
great disadvantage. 

I know a business man who has cultivated the art 
199 



How to Speak in Public 

of conversation to such an extent that it is a great 
treat to listen to him. His language flows with such 
liquid, limpid beauty, his words are chosen with such 
exquisite delicacy, taste, and accuracy, there is such 
a refinement in his diction that he charms everyone 
who hears him speak. All his life he has been a reader 
of the finest prose and poetry, and has cultivated con- 
versation as a fine art. 

You may think you are poor and have no chance 
in life. You may be situated so that others are de- 
pendent upon you, and you may not be able to go to 
school or college, or to study music or art, as you 
long to ; you may be tied down to an iron environ- 
ment ; you may be tortured with an unsatisfied, disap- 
pointed ambition ; and yet you can become an interest- 
ing talker, because in every sentence you utter you 
can practice the best form of expression. Every book 
you read, every person with whom you converse, who 
uses good English, can help you. 

Few people think very much about how they are 
going to express themselves. They use the first words 
that come to them. They do not think of forming a 
sentence so that it will have beauty, brevity, trans- 
parency, power. The words flow from their lips 
helter-skelter, with little thought of arrangement or 
order. 

Now and then we meet a real ar'ist in conversa- 
tion, and it is such a treat and delight that we wonder 
why the most of us should be such bunglers in our 
conversation, that we should make such a botch of 
ijie medium of communication between human beings, 

200 



If You Can Talk Well 

when it is capable of being made the art of arts. 

I have met a dozen persons in my Ufetime who 
have given me such a gHmpse of its superb possibiHties 
that it has made all other arts seem comparatively 
unimportant to me. 

I was once a visitor at Wendell Phillips's home 
in Boston, and the music of his voice, the liquid charm 
of his words, the purity, the transparency of his dic- 
tion, the profundity of his knowledge, the fascination 
of his personality, and his marvelous art of putting 
things, I shall never forget. He sat down on the sofa 
beside me and talked as he would to an old schoolmate, 
and it seemed to me that I had never before heard 
such exquisite English. I have met several English 
people who possessed that marvelous power of "soul 
in conversation which charms all who come under its 
spell." 

Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, Julia Ward Howe, and 
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward had this wonderful 
conversational charm, as has ex-President Eliot of 
Harvard. 

The quality of the conversation is everything. We 
all know people who use the choicest language and 
express their thoughts in fluent, liquid diction, who 
impress us by the wonderful flow of their conversa- 
tion ; but that is all there is to it. They do not impress 
us with their thoughts; they do not stimulate us to 
action. We do not feel any more determined to do 
something in the world, to be somebody, after we have 
heard them talk than we felt before. 

We know other people who talk very little, but 
201 



How to Speak in Public 

whose words are so full of meat and stimulating 
brain force that we feel ourselves multiplied many 
times by the power they have injected into us. 

In olden times the art of conversation reached a 
much higher standard than that of to-day. The de- 
terioration is due to the complete revolution in the 
conditions of modern civilization. Formerly people 
had almost no other way of communicating their 
thoughts than by speech. Knowledge of all kinds 
was disseminated almost wholly through the spoken 
word. There were no great daily newspapers, no 
magazines or periodicals of any kind. 

The great discoveries of vast wealth in the prec- 
ious minerals, the new world opened up by inventions 
and discoveries, and the great impetus to ambition 
have changed all this. In this lightning-express age, 
in these strenuous times, when everybody has the 
mania to attain wealth and position, we no longer 
have time to reflect with deliberation, and to develop 
our powers of conversation. In these great news- 
paper and periodical days, when everybody can get 
for one or a few cents the news and information 
which it has cost thousands of dollars to collect, every- 
body sits behind the morning sheet or is buried in a 
book or magazine. There is no longer the same need 
of communicating thought by the spoken word, as 
there was formerly. 

Oratory is becoming a lost art for the same reason. 
Printing has become so cheap that even the poorest 
homes can get more reading for a few dollars than 
kings and noblemen could afford in the Middle Ages. 

202 



If You Can Talk Well 

It is a rare thing to find a polished conversationalist 
to-day. So rare is it to hear one speaking exquisite 
English, and using a superb diction, that it is indeed 
a luxury. 

Good reading, however, will not only broaden the 
mind and give new ideas, but it will also increase one's 
vocabulary, and that is a great aid to conversation. 
Many people have good thoughts and ideas, but they 
cannot express them because of the poverty of their 
vocabulary. They have not words enough to clothe 
their ideas and make them attractive. They talk 
around in a circle, repeat and repeat, because, when 
they want a particular word to convey their exact 
meaning, they cannot find it. 

If you are ambitious to talk well, you must be 
as much as possible in the society of well-bred, cul- 
tured people. If you seclude yourself, though you 
are a college graduate, you will be a poor converser. 

We all sympathize with people, especially the timid 
and shy, who have that awful feeling of repression 
and stifling of thought, when they make an effort to 
say something and cannot. Timid young people often 
suffer keenly in this way in attempting to declaim at 
school or college. But many a great orator went 
through the same sort of experience when he first 
attempted to speak in public, and was often deeply 
humiliated by his blunders and failures. There is no 
other way, however, to become an orator or a good 
conversationalist than by constantly trying to express 
oneself efficiently and elegantly. 

If you find that your ideas fly from you when 
203 



How to Speak in Public 

you attempt to express them, that you stammer and 
flounder about for words which you are unable to 
find, you may be sure that every honest effort you 
make, even if you fail in your attempt, will make it 
all the easier for you to speak well the next time. 
It is remarkable, if one keeps on trying, how quickly 
he will conquer his awkwardness and self-conscious- 
ness, and will gain ease of manner and facility of 
expression. 

Everywhere we see people placed at a tremendous 
disadvantage because they have never learned the art 
of putting their ideas into interesting, telling language. 
We see brainy men at public gatherings, when mo- 
mentous questions are being discussed, sit silent, 
unable to tell what they know, when they are infinitely 
better informed than those who are making a great 
deal of display of oratory or smooth talk. 

People with a lot of ability, who know a great 
deal, often appear like a set of dummies in company, 
while some superficial, shallow-brained person holds 
the attention of those present simply because he can 
tell what he knows in an interesting way. They are 
constantly humiliated and embarrassed when away 
from those who happen to know their real worth, 
because they cannot carry on an intelligent conversa- 
tion upon any topic. There are hundreds of these 
silent people at our national capital — many of them 
wives of husbands who have suddenly and unexpect- 
edly come into political prominence. 

Many people — and this is especially true of schol- 
ars — seem to think that the great desideratum in life 

204 



If You Can Talk Well 

is to get as much valuable information into the head 
as possible. But it is just as important to know how 
to give out knowledge in a palatable manner as to 
acquire it. You may be a profound scholar, you may 
be well read in history and in politics, you may be 
wonderfully well-posted in science, literature, and art, 
and yet, if your knowledge is locked up within you, 
you will always be placed at a great disadvantage. 

Locked-up ability may give the individual some 
satisfaction, but it must be exhibited, expressed in 
some attractive way, before the world will appreciate 
it or give credit for it. It does not matter how valu- 
able the rough diamond may be, no explaining, no 
describing its marvels of beauty within, and its great 
value, would avail; no body would appreciate it until 
it was ground and polished and the light let into its 
depths to reveal its hidden brilliancy. Conversation 
is to the man what the cutting of the diamond is to 
the stone. The grinding does not add anything to 
the diamond. It merely reveals its wealth. 

How little parents realize the harm they are doing 
their children by allowing them to grow up ignorant 
of or indifferent to the marvelous possibilities in the 
art of conversation! In the majority of homes, chil- 
dren are allowed to mangle the English language in 
a most painful way. 

Nothing else will develop the brain and character 
more than the constant effort to talk well, intelligently, 
interestingly, upon all sorts of topics. There is a 
splendid discipHne in the constant effort to express 
one's thoughts in clear language and in an interesting 

205 



How to Speak in Public 

manner. We know people who are such superb con- 
versers that no one would ever dream that they have 
not had the advantages of the higher schools. Many 
a college graduate has been silenced and put to shame 
by people who have never even been to a high school, 
but who have cultivated the art of self-expression. 

The school and the college employ the student com- 
paratively a few hours a day for a few years ; con- 
versation is a training in a perpetual, school. Many 
get the best part of their education in this school. 

Conversation is a great ability discoverer, a great 
revealer of possibilities and resources. It stimulates 
thought wonderfully. We think more of ourselves if 
we can talk well, if we can interest and hold others. 
The power to do so increases our self-respect, our self- 
confidence. 

No man knows what he really possesses until he 
makes his best effort to express to others what is in 
him. Then the avenues of the mind fly open, the 
faculties are on the alert. Every good converser has 
felt a power come to him from the listener which 
he never felt before, and which often stimulates and 
inspires to fresh endeavor. The mingling of thought 
with thought, the contact of mind with mind, develops 
new powers, as the mixing of two chemicals produces 
a new third substance. 

To converse well one must listen well also. This 
means one must hold oneself in a receptive attitude. 

We are not only poor conversationalists, but we 
are poor listeners as well. We are too impatient to 
listen. Instead of being attentive and eager to drink 

206 



If You Can Talk Well 

in the story or the information, we have not enough 
respect for the talker to keep quiet. We look about 
impatiently, perhaps snap our watch, play a tattoo with 
our fingers on a chair or a table, hitch about as if we 
were bored and were anxious to get away, and inter- 
rupt the speaker before he reaches his conclusion. In 
fact, we are such an impatient people that we have 
no time for anything except to push ahead, to elbow 
our way through the crowd to get the position or the 
money we desire. Our life is feverish and unnatural. 
We have no time to develop charm of manner, or 
elegance of diction. "We are too intense for epigram 
or repartee. We lack time." 

We have no time for the development of a fine 
manner ; the charm of the days of chivalry and leisure 
has almost vanished from our civilization. A new 
type of individual has sprung up. We work like 
Trojans during the day, and then rush to a theater or 
other place of amusement in the evening. We have 
no time to make our own amusement or to develop 
the faculty of humor and fun-making as people used 
to do. We pay people for doing that while we sit and 
laugh. We are like some college boys, who depend 
upon tutors to carry them through their examina- 
tions — they expect to buy their education ready-made. 

Life is becoming so artificial, so forced, so diverse 
from naturalness, we drive our human engines at such 
a fearful speed, that our finer life is crushed out. 
Spontaneity and humor, and the possibility of a fine 
culture and a superb charm of personality in us are 
almost impossible and extremely rare. 

207 



How to Speak in Public 

One cause for our conversational, decline is a lack 
of sympathy. We are too selfish, too busily engaged 
in our own welfare, and wrapped up in our own 
little world, too intent upon our own seif -promotion 
to be interested in others. No one can make a good 
converser who is not sympathetic. You must be able 
to enter into another's life, to live it with the other 
person, in order to be a good talker or a good listener. 

Walter Besant used to tell of a clever woman 
who had a great reputation as a conversationalist, 
though she talked very little. She had such a cordial, 
sympathetic manner that she helped the timid and the 
shy to say their best things, and made them feel at 
home. She dissipated their fears, and they could say 
things to her which they could not say to anyone 
else. People thought her an interesting conversa- 
tionalist because she had this ability to call out the 
best in others. 

If you would make yourself agreeable you must 
be able to enter into the life of the people with whom 
you converse, and you must touch them along the lines 
of their interest. No matter how much you may know 
about a subject, if it does not happen to interest those 
to whom you are talking, your efforts will be largely 
lost. 

It is pitiable, sometimes, to see men standing 
around at the average reception or club gathering, 
dumb, almost helpless, and powerless to enter heartily 
into the conversation because they are in a subjective 
mood. They are thinking, thinking; thinking busi- 
ness, business, business ; thinking how they can get on 

208 



If You Can Talk Well 

a little faster — get more business, more clients, more 
patients, or more readers for their books, or a better 
house to live in ; how they can make more show. They 
do not enter heartily into the lives of others, or aban- 
don themselves to the occasion enough to make good 
talkers. They are cold and reserved, distant, because 
their minds are somewhere else, their affections on 
themselves and their own affairs. There are only two 
things that interest them, business and their own little 
world. If you talk about these things, they are inter- 
ested at once ; but they do not care a snap about your 
affairs, how you get on, or what your ambition is, or 
how they can help you. Our conversation will never 
reach a high standard while we live in such a feverish, 
selfish, and unsympathetic state. 

Great conversationalists have always been very 
tactful — interesting without offending. It does not do 
to stab people if you would interest them, nor to drag 
out their family skeletons. Some people have the 
peculiar quality of touching the best that is in us: 
others stir up the bad. Every time they come into 
our presence they irritate us. Others allay all that is 
disagreeable. They never touch our sensitive spots, 
sore spots, and they call out all that is spontaneous 
and sweet and beautiful. 

Lincoln was master of the art of making himself 
interesting to everybody he met. He put people at 
ease with his stories and jokes, and made them feel 
so completely at home in his presence that they opened 
up their mental treasures to him without reserve. 
Strangers were always glad to talk with him, because 

209 



How to Speak in Public 

he was so cordial and quaint, and always gave more 
than he got. 

A sense of humor such as Lincoln had is, of course, 
a great addition to one's conversational powers. But 
not everyone can be funny ; and, if you lack the sense 
of humor, you will make yourself ludicrous by attempt- 
ing to be so. 

You must be broad, tolerant. A narrow, stingy 
soul never talks well. A man who is always violating 
your sense of taste, of justice, and of fairness, never 
interests you. You lock tight all the approaches to 
your inner self, every avenue is closed to him. Your 
magnetism and your helpfulness are thus cut off, and 
the conversation is perfunctory, mechanical, and with- 
out life or feeling. 

You must bring your listener close to you, must 
open your heart wide, and exhibit a broad, free nature, 
and an open mind. You must be responsible, so that 
he will throw wide open every avenue of his nature 
and give you free access to his heart of hearts. 

If a man is a success anywhere, it ought to be in 
his personality, in his power to express himself in 
strong, effective, interesting language. He should not 
be obliged to give a stranger an inventory of his pos- 
sessions in order to show that he has achieved some- 
thing. A greater wealth should flow from his lips, 
and express itself in his manner. 

No amount of natural ability or education or good 
clothes, no amount of money, will make you appear 
well if you cannot express yourself in good language. 



210 



Newly Selected Illustrations 
for Speakers 

Inspirational Thoughts for Public Speakers 
and Writers 



Celebrated Passages from the Best Orations and Writings 



Introduction. 

The "Celebrated Passages" which follow suggest the 
nature of the complete orations and writings from which 
they are taken. They will have great educational value, 
aside from their obvious use for ready and constant ref- 
erence. They should be read aloud in order that the ear 
may clearly grasp the vowel harmonies, and wondrous 
style of these greater orators. The needs of all classes of 
speakers have been kept in view, and the compilation is 
intended to introduce students to the great masterpieces 
of the orators represented. It will be noted that many 
of these famous sayings have passed into the general cur- 
rency of speech.. They furnish a fund of material with 
which to adorn or strengthen a speech or article, all con- 
veniently arranged alphabetically by authors, so that it 
will be found not less useful for reading than for refer- 
ence, and will easily impress on the Memory the name of 
the author and the form of expression. 

Many of the ''Passages" are complete in themselves 
and are a visualization, an epitome of great subjects. 

211 



Generally a speaker follows up his statement with an apt 
illustration that impresses a mental picture upon his lis- 
teners. This mental image subserves the law of asso- 
ciation of ideas, as fully explained in the Dickson Method 
of Memory Training, and enables the listener to remem- 
ber the statement of the speaker. He is the best speaker 
who can turn men's ears into eyes, and dramatize his 
subject so thoroughly that it seems to live and move be- 
fore his listeners. Thinking is largely a procession of 
verbal images. There is not an hour of our life that we 
are acting without an image. Every thought, every word, 
carries the form with it. If we speak the word ''rose," 
we see at once some kind of a rose — we do not see a 
"tulip" ; but something which we have called a "rose" 
immediately takes form in our mind. We cannot read a 
poem or a story, but our mind follows form in pictured 
projection. In reading the following "Passages" try and 
image the thought picture suggested by the writer and 
make it your own. 

The study of these extracts will not only help you to 
make a better speech, but also to write a better address, 
a better letter, and increase your efficiency as an after- 
dinner speaker, as a debater, and as a writer of power- 
ful English. 



212 



Celebrated Passages from the Best Orations 
and Writings 



Allen, Edward A. (American, 
contemporaneous. ) 

The Oratory of Anglo-Saxon 
Countries — English-spea king 

people have always been the 
freest people, the greatest lov- 
ers of liberty, the world has ever 
seen. Long before English his- 
tory properly begins, the pen 
of Tacitus reveals to us our 
forefathers in their old home- 
land in North Germany beating 
back the Roman legions under 
Varus, and staying the progress 
of Rome's triumphant car whose 
mighty wheels had crushed 
Hannibal, Jugurtha, and count- 
less thousands in every land. 
The Germanic ancestors of the 
English nation were the only 
people who did not bend the 
neck to these lords of all the 
world besides. In the year 9, 
when the founder of Christian- 
ity was playing about his humble 
home at Nazareth, or watching 
his father at work in his shop, 
our forefathers dealt Rome a 
blow from which she never re- 
covered. As Freeman, late pro- 
fessor of history at Oxford, said 
in one of his lectures: "In the 
blow by the Teutoburg wood 
was the germ of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, the germ 
of the surrender of Torktown." 
Arminius was our first Washing- 



ton, as Tacitus calls him,— the 
savior of his country. 

So long as there are wrongs 
to be redressed, so long as the 
strong oppress the weak, so 
long as injustice sits in high 
places, the voice of the orator 
will be needed to plead for the 
rights of man. He may not, at 
this stage of the republic, be 
called upon to sound a battle 
cry to arms, but there are 
bloodless victories to be won 
as essential to the stability of 
a great nation and the uplifting 
of its millions of people as the 
victories of the battlefield. 

When the greatest of modern 
political philosophers, the au- 
thor of the Declaration of In- 
dependence, urged that, if men 
were left free to declare the 
truth the effect of its great 
positive forces would overcome 
the negative forces of error, he 
seems to have hit the central 
fact of civilization. Without 
freedom of thought and absolute 
freedom to speak out the truth 
as one sees it, there can be no 
advancement, no high civiliza- 
tion. To the orator who has 
heard the call of humanity, what 
nobler aspiration than to en- 
large and extend the freedom 
we have inherited from our 
Anglo-Saxon forefathers, and to 
defend the hope of the world? 



113 



How to Speak in Public 



Brewer, David J. (American, 
contemporaneous). 

"Oratory, the Masterful Art" 

— Oratory is the masterful art. 
Poetry, painting, music, sculp- 
ture, architecture, please, thrill, 
inspire; but oratory rules. The 
orator dominates those who hear 
him, convinces their reason, 
controls their judgment, com- 
pels their action. For the time 
being he is master. Through 
the clearness of his logic, the 
keenness of his wit, the power 
of his appeal, or that magnetic 
something which is felt and yet 
cannot be defined, or through 
all together, he sways his audi- 
ence as the storm bends the 
branches of the forest. Hence 
it is that in all times this won- 
derful power has been some- 
thing longed for and striven for. 
Demosthenes, on the beach, 
struggling with the pebbles in 
his mouth to perfect his articu- 
lation, has been the great ex- 
ample. Yet it is often true of 
the orator, as of the poet; nas- 
citur non fit. Patrick Henry 
seemed to be inspired as "Give 
me liberty or give me death" 
rolled from his lips. The un- 
tutored savage has shown him- 
self an orator. 

"Who does not delight in ora- 
tory? How we gather to hear 
even an ordinary speaker! How 
often is a jury swayed and con- 
trolled by the appeals of coun- 
sel! Do we not all feel the 
magic of the power, and when 
occasionally we are permitted 
to listen to a great orator how 



completely we lose ourselves and 
yield in willing submission to 
the imperious and impetuous 
flow of his speech! It is said 
that after "Webster's great re- 
ply to Hayne every Massachu- 
setts man walking down Penn- 
sylvania Avenue seemed a foot 
taller. 



Bethune, George W. (American, 
nineteenth century). 

Americans — Not Anglo-Sax- 

ons — God is bringing hither the 
most vigorous scions from all 
the European stocks, to make 
of them all one new man; not 
the Saxon, not the German, not 
the Gaul, not the Helvetian, but 
the American. Here they wHl 
unite as one brotherhood, will 
have one law, will share one 
interest. Spread over the vast 
region from the frigid to the 
torrid, from the Eastern to the 
"^''estern Ocean, every variety 
of climate giving them choice 
of pursuit and modification of 
temperament, the ballot-box 
fusing together all rivalries, they 
shall have one national will. 
"VS^'hat is wanting in one race 
will be supplied by the charac- 
teristic energies of the others; 
and what is excessive in either, 
checked by the counter action 
of the rest. 



Bryant, William Cullen (Ameri- 
can, 1794-1S78). 

The Essence of Greatness — 
Burns was great because, what- 
ever may have been the errors 
of his after life, when he came 



214 



Celebrated Passages 



from the hand that formed him, 
— I say it with the profoundest 
reverence, — God breathed into 
him, in larger measure than in- 
to other men, the spirit of that 
'ove which constitutes his own 
essence, and made him more 
than other men — a living soul. 
Burns was great by the great- 
ness of his sympathies, — sympa- 
thies acute and delicate, yet 
large, comprehensive, boundless. 
They were warmest and strong- 
est toward those of his own kin, 
yet they overflowed upon all 
sentient beings, — upon the an- 
imals in his stall; upon the 
"wee, sleekit cowerin', tim'rous 
beastie" dislodged from her au- 
tumnal covert; upon the hare 
wounded by the sportsman; upon 
the very field flower, overturned 
by his share and crushed among 
the stubble. And in all this we 
feel that there is nothing 
strained or exaggerated, nothing 
affected or put on, nothing child- 
ish or silly, but that all is true, 
genuine, manly, noble; we hon- 
or, we venerate the poet while 
we read; we take the expression 
of these sympathies to our 
hearts, and fold it in our mem= 
ory forever. — (1859). 



BroWn, Henry Armitt (Ameri- 
can, contemporaneous). 

Remembering Valley Forge — 

In the impenetrable To Be, the 
endless generations are advanc- 
ing to take our places as we 
fall. For them, as for us, shall 
the earth roll on and the sea- 
sons come and go, the snow- 



flakes fall, the flowers bloom and 
the harvests be gathered in. For 
them as for us shall the sun, 
like the life of man, rise out of 
darkness in the morning and 
sink into darkness in the night. 
For them as for us shall the 
years march by in the sublime 
procession of the ages. And 
here, in this place of sacrifice, 
in this vale of humiliation, in 
this valley of the shadow of that 
death out of which the life of 
America arose, regenerate and 
free, let us believe with an abid- 
ing faith that, to them, union will 
seem as dear and liberty as sweet, 
and progress as glorious as they 
were to our fathers, and are to 
you and me. and that the insti- 
tutions which have made us 
happy, preserved by the virtue 
of our children, shall bless the 
remotest generations of the time 
to come. And unto him who 
holds in the hollow of his hand 
the fate of nations, and yet 
marks the sparrow's fall, let us 
lift up our hearts this day, and 
into his eternal care commend 
ourselves, our children and our 
country. — From Oration at the 
Valley Forge Centennial. 



Brooks, Phillip (American, 1835- 
1893). 

Commit to Memory — It is a 

valuable exercise to copy pas- 
sages of literature. Sight strikes 
deeper than sound; to execute 
form stamps it upon the mem- 
ory often like a die upon the 
waxen tablet. Many writers, 
ancient and modern, have prac- 



215 



How to Speak in Public 



ticed copying the productions of 
the masters of literature. De- 
mosthenes copied tlie history of 
Thucydides seven or eight times 
in order to acquire his clear, 
concise and elegant style. Lit- 
erary taste is cultivated by com- 
mitting literary productions to 
memory. Committing makes a 
deeper impression upon the mind 
than either reading or copying. 
It tends to fix the words in the 
memory, and deepen the chan- 
nels of thought and expression. 
It gives, as it were, literary 
molds in which to run one's own 
thoughts, or forms literary chan- 
nels in which our thoughts and 
sentiments will naturally flow 
out into expression. This has 
also been the practice of many 
who have attained rare excel- 
lence in the use of language. 
The practice of declaiming 
pieces and giving recitations has 
been of great value in the cul- 
tivation of literary taste and 
skill. These selections usually 
present models of style and 
stimulate thought and expres- 
sion. The declamations of early 
3'ears have often done more to 
shape literary taste and give 
skill in expression than the en- 
tire college course in classics, 
rhetoric, and literature. Pupils 
should, therefore, be required to 
commit many fine selections of 
prose and poetry. These will 
cling to the memory, furnishing 
the mind with fact and senti- 
ment, giving choice vocabulary, 
and molding forms of expres- 
sion. Indeed, this is one of the 
very best means of literary cul- 



ture. As we have said, it makes 
the mind familiar with both 
thought and expression, the best 
thoughts and the choicest forms 
of expression; for, to enrich the 
mind with the noble thoughts 
of the gifted sons of genius is to 
train in the habit of thinking 
high and noble thoughts; to ac- 
custom the tongue to refined and 
artistic expression is to give the 
power to clothe the mind's own 
thoughts in artistic forms. One 
reason why the Greeks had so 
fine a literary taste is that they 
were trained in committing and 
reciting the Iliad and the Odys- 
sey, Burke and Pitt cultivated 
the power of oratory by com- 
mitting and declaiming the ora- 
tions of Demosthenes. Fox com- 
mitted the book of Job, and 
drew from it much of his gran- 
deur and force of expression. 
Lord Chatham read and re-read 
the sermons of Dr. Barrow un- 
til he knew many of them by 
heart, and they gave inspiration 
and eloquence to his utterance. 
So, if you would have taste and 
skill in literary composition, fill 
the mind with the choicest pro- 
ductions of the masters of lit- 
erature, making many of them 
thoroughly your own by com- 
mitting them to memory. 



Carson, Hampton L. (American, 
contemporaneous). 

American Liberty a Thing of 
Growth — American liberty is 
composite in its character and 
rich in its material. Its sources, 
like the fountains of our Father 



216 



Celebrated Passages 



of Waters, among the hills, are 
to be sought among the ever- 
lasting truths of mankind. All 
ages and all countries have con- 
tributed to the result. The 
American Revolution forms but 
a single chapter in the volume 
of human fate. From the pure 
fountains of Greece, before 
choked with dead leaves from 
the fallen tree of civilization; 
from the rude strength poured 
by barbaric transfusion into the 
veins of dying Rome; from the 
institutes of Gaius and the pan- 
dects of Justinian; from the 
laws of Alfred and the Magna 
Charta of King John; from the 
daring prows of the Norsemen 
and the sons of RoUo the Rover; 
from the precepts of Holy Writ 
and the teaching of him who 
was nailed to the cross on Cal- 
vary; from the courage of a 
Genoese and the liberality and 
religious fervor of a Spanish 
queen; from the enterprise of 
Portugal and the devoted labors 
of the French Jesuits; from the 
scaffolds of Russell and Sidney 
and of Egmont and Horn; from 
the blood of martyrs and the vi- 
sions of prophets; from the un- 
exampled struggle of eighty 
years of the Netherlands for 
liberty, as well as from the rev- 
olution which dethroned a 
James; from the tongue of Hen- 
ry, the pen of Jefferson, the 
sword of Washington and the 
sagacity of Franklin; from the 
discipline of Steuben, the death 
of Pulaski and De Kalb and the 
generous alliance of the French; 
from the constitution of the 



United States; from the bloody 
sweat of France and the strug- 
gles of Germany, Poland, Hun- 
gary and Italy for constitu- 
tional monarch5^• from the ar- 
guments of Webster and the 
judgments of Marshall; from 
the throes of civil war and the 
failure of secp'^fion; from the 
Emancipation Proclamation and 
the enfranchisement of a dusky 
race; from the lips of the living 
in all lands and in all forms of 
speech; from the bright exam- 
ples and deathless memories of 
the dead — from all these, as 
from ten thousand living 
streams, the lordly current upon 
which floats our ship of state, 
so richly freighted with the 
rights of men, broadens as it 
flows through the centuries, 
past tombs of kings and graves 
of priests and mounds of bur- 
ied shackles and the charred 
heaps of human auction blocks 
and the gray stones of perished 
institutions, out into the bound- 
less ocean of the future. Upon 
the shores of that illimitable sea 
stands the Temple of Eternal 
Truth; not buried in the earth, 
made hollow by the sepulchers 
of her witnesses, but rising in 
the majesty of primeval granite, 
the dome supported by majestic 
pillars embedded in the graves 
of martyrs. — From Address on 
"The Liberty Bell." 



Carruth, W. H. (American, con- 
temporaneous). 

Each in His Own Tongue — ^Mr. 

Carruth has not been a prolific 
poet, but one masterpiece is 



217 



How to Speak in Public 



worth a volume of commonplace 
verse. "Each In His Own 
Tongue" fulfills all the require- 
ments of fine poetry, a high 
conception, beautiful language, 
correct metre, excellent rhyme. 
The poem is a classic and can- 
not fail to survive the sifting 
processes of ti. "'^, 

A fire-mist and a planet — 

A crystal and a cell — 
A jelly fish and a saurian, 

And caves where the cave men 
dwell; 
Then a sense of law and beauty 

And a face turned from the 
clod — 
Some call it Evolution, 

And others call it God. 

A haze on the far horizon — 

The infinite, tender sky — 
The ripe, rich tint of the corn- 
field, 

And the wild geese sailing 
high — 
And all over upland and lowland 

The charm of the golden rod — 
Some of us call it Autumn, 

And others call it God. 

Like tides on the crescent sea 
beach 

When the moon is new and 
thin, 
Into our hearts high yearnings 

Come welling and surging in — 
Come from the mystic ocean, 

Whose rim no foot has trod — 
Some of us call it Longing, 

And others call it God. 



A picket frozen on duty — 
A mother starved for 
brood — 



her 



Socrates drinking the hemlock, 

And Jesus on the rood; 
And millions who, humble and 
nameless. 
The straight, hard pathway 
trod — 
Some call it Consecration, 
And others call it God. 



Crane, Frank (American, con- 
temporaneous). 

Home-Made Poetry and Reli- 
gion — The secret of poetry, of 
religion, and of all living and 
thinking upon the higher plane 
is the translation of material 
into spiritual values. 

This is the trick of poetry. 
When Goldsmith, for instance 
wants to give us the quality of 
greatness in a good man he 
likens him to 
"Some tall cliff that rears its 

awful form. 
Swells from the vale and mid- 
way leaves the storm. 
Though round his breast the 

rolling clouds are spread, 
Eternal sunshine settles on his 
head." 

Here the whole force of the 
idea comes from making a 
mountain, a thing of earth and 
rock, represent a man. 

The Greeks made their lives 
beautiful by thus personifying 
all natural objects: trees had 
their dryads, streams their 
naids, the sea its nymphs, the 
sky its gods, sun and moon be- 
came Apollo and Diana, and 
even the dark underworld and 
the deep ocean were bodied 
forth by Pluto and Neptune. 



218 



Celebrated Passages 



One notes the same method, 
in a different way, in Jesus, the 
greatest of spiritual leaders. He 
did not "explain" the kingdom 
of heaven, but He said it was 
"like" this and that — a grain of 
mustard seed, a pearl of great 
price, a lump of leaven, and so 
on. 

All of us cannot be poets or 
prophets, but we all can make 
use of this same art of trans- 
muting things of death into 
things of life and spirit; on a 
small scale, perhaps, but still 
enough to make our lives richer. 

If one will form this habit it 
will be of great help. Yonder 
is a tree in my yard; I will say 
it is a certain friend of mine; 
he is a shade, too, to me, and 
under his branches I find re- 
freshment. 

I love bread and need it; it is 
like my love, upon whom also 
my heart feeds; I could not live 
without her. 

Voices come to me through 
the wall; some persons are talk- 
ing in the next room. So I 
catch mutterings from behind 
the wall of Death; the murmur 
I hear, but no words intelligible. 

A flower looks up at me from 
the side of the path; a little 
child smiles at me from a win- 
dow; they are akin. 

By such processes as these 
even the least gifted of us can 
manufacture his own poetry, can 
create a spiritual air of his own. 
By folding our dimly perceived 
thoughts back upon nature they 
become strangely luminous. By 
taking the half-felt emotions 



and shades of sentiment from 
the heart and finding some 
brother or sister feeling in the 
material world, all our feeling 
returns to us clearer and sharp- 
er. 

This may not be writing po- 
etry, but it is living poetry, 
which is better. It may not ex- 
actly be the kind of religion 
that any church would accept 
as satisfactory, but it is a sort 
of plain, everyday, usable reli- 
giousness of life, nevertheless. 

This simple habit will do for 
us two things: It will help to 
beautify the commonplace, and 
that is real poetry; and it will 
help us to realize the sacredness 
of ourselves and of the world we 
live in, and that is the best end 
of religion. 

It is home-made poetry and 
religion, not for show, nor for 
sale, nor for others at all, but 
for home use. 



Crane, Frank. 

Life — ^As I write this I can 
look out of my window and see 
a cloud, a hill, a spire, a house, 
a wall, a road and a river, in 
just this order from top to bot- 
tom. 

Life is not a cloud, for a cloud 
has no substance save thin mist. 

Life is not a hill, for a hill 
is beautiful at a distance only, 
while life is near and dear and 
its microscopic ways are as 
charming as its perspective. 

Life is not a spire, for a spire 
points to a happiness in an- 
other world than this, whereas 



219 



How to Speak in Public 



happiness grows in but one 
place, here, and at one time, 
now. The kingdom of life is 
about us. 

Life is not a house, for a 
house is permanent, while life 
is fleeting. Many lives come and 
go and the house stands. 

Life is not a wall, for a wall 
is a limitation, while life is in- 
finite and has no bounds. 

Life is not a road, for life 
roams the fields and goes where 
men have not gone. It flies over 
the hedges as a bird, it treads 
the forest as a deer. 

Life is a river, always the 
same, yet ever different; always 
passing, always present; fluid, 
yet outlasting all walls and 
houses; flowing, yet enduring; 
going, yet eternal. "The river 
of life" is a true symbol. The 
river is the one natural object 
that is both fleeting and per- 
manent. 



Drummond, Henry (Scotland, 
1851-1897). 

"The Greatest Thing In the 
World" — We have been accus- 
tomed to be told that the great- 
est thing in the religious world 
is Faith. That great word has 
been the keynote for centuries 
of the popular religion, and we 
have easily learned to look upon 
it as the greatest thing in the 
world. Well, we are wrong. If 
we have been told that, we may 
miss the mark. I have taken 
you, in the chapter which I have 
just read, to Christianity at its 
source, and there we have seen 



"The greatest of these is love." 
It is not an oversight. Paul was 
speaking of faith just a moment 
before. He says: "If I have 
all faith, so that I can remove 
mountains, and have not love, 
I am nothing." So far from for- 
getting, he deliberately contrasts 
them, "Now abideth Faith, 
Hope, Love," and without a mo- 
ment's hesitation the decision 
falls: "The greatest of these 
is Love." 



(American, 



Grady, Henry W. 

1851-1889). 

New England — Here within 
touch of Plymouth Rock and 
Bunker Hill, — where Webster 
thundered and Longfellow sung, 
Emerson thought, and Chan- 
ning preached, — here in the 
cradle of American letters and 
almost of American liberty, I 
hasten to make the obeisance 
that every American owes New 
England when first he stands 
uncovered in her mighty pres- 
ence. Strange apparition! This 
stern and unique figure, carved 
from the ocean and the wilder- 
ness, its majesty kindling and 
growing amid the storms of 
winters and of wars, until, at 
last, the gloom was broken, its 
beauty disclosed in the tranquil 
sunshine, and the heroic work- 
ers rested at its base, while 
startled kings and emperors 
gazed and marveled that from 
the rude touch of this handful, 
cast on a bleak and unknown 
shore, should have come the 
embodied genius of human lib- 



220 



Celebrated Passages 



erty! God bless the memory of 
those immortal workers, — and 
prosper the fortunes of their liv- 
ing sons, — and perpetuate the 
inspiration of their handiwork! 
—(Boston, 1889.) 



Hugo, Victor (France, 1802- 
1885). 

"The First Tree of Liberty"— 

The first tree of liberty was 
planted eighteen hundred years 
ago by God himself on Golgotha! 
The first tree of liberty was that 
cross on which Jesus Christ was 
offered a sacrifice; for the lib- 
erty, equality and fraternity of 
the human race! 



Ingalls, John J (American, 1833- 
1900). 

On the Death of Senator Hill 

— Ben Hill has gone to the un- 
discovered country. Whether his 
journey thither was but one step 
across an im.perceptible frontier, 
or whether an interminable 
ocean, black, unfluctuating, and 
voiceless, stretches between 
these earthly coasts and those 
invisible shores — we do not 
know. 

Whether on that August 
morning after death he saw a 
more glorious sun rise with un- 
imaginable splendor above a ce- 
lestial horizon, or whether his 
apathetic and unconscious ashes 
still sleep in cold obstruction 
and insensible oblivion — we do 
not know 

Whether his strong and sub- 
tle energies found instant exer- 



cise in another forum, whether 
his dexterous and disciplined 
faculties are now contending in 
a higher senate than ours for 
supremacy, or whether his pow- 
ers were dissipated and dis- 
persed with his parting breath 
— we do not know 

Whether his passions, ambi- 
tions, and affections still sway, 
attract, and impel, whether he 
yet remembers us as we remem- 
ber him — we do not know. 

These are the unsolved, the 
insoluble problems of mortal 
life and human destiny, which 
prompted the troubled patriarch 
to ask that momentous question 
for which the centuries have 
given no answer, — "If a man 
die, shall he live again?" 

Every man is the centre of a 
circle whose fatal circumference 
he cannot pass. Within its nar- 
row confines he is potential, be- 
yond it he perishes; and if im- 
mortality be a splendid but de- 
lusive dream, if the incomplete- 
ness of every career, even the 
longest and most fortunate, be 
not supplemented and perfected 
after its termination here, then 
he who dreads to die should fear 
to live, for life is a tragedy 
more desolate and in explicable 
than death, — (Exordium of the 
Eulogy on Senator Hill of Geor- 
gia. U. S. Senate, 1883.) 

Indian Orators. 

Black Hawk (Address to Gen- 
eral Street) — Black Hawk is an 
Indian. He has done nothing 
for which an Indian ought to be 



221 



How to Speak in Public 



ashamed. He has fought for 
his countrymen, against the 
white man, who came, year af- 
ter year, to cheat them, and 
take away their lands. You 
know the cause of our making 
war. It is known to all white 
men. They ought to be ashamed 
of it. The white men despise 
the Indians, and drive them 
from their homes. They smile 
in the face of the poor Indian, 
to cheat him; they shake him 
by the hand, to gain his confi- 
dence, to make him drunk, and 
to deceive him. We told them 
to let us alone, and keep away 
from us; but they followed on 
and beset our paths, and they 
coiled themselves among us like 
the snake. They poisoned us by 
their touch. We were not safe. 
We lived in danger. We looKed 
up to the Great Spirit. We 
went to our father. We were 
encouraged. His great council 
gave us fair words and big 
promises; but we got no satis- 
faction: things were growing 
worse. There were no deer in 
the forest. The opossum and 
beaver were fled. The springs 
were drying up and our squaws 
and pappooses without food to 
keep them from starving. 

We called a great council, and 
built a large fire. The spirit 
of our fathers arose and spoke 
to us to avenge our wrongs or 
die. We set up the war whoop, 
and dug up the tomahawk; our 
knives were ready, and the 
heart of Black Hawk swelled 
high in his bosom when he led 
his warriors to battle. He is 



satisfied. He will go to the 
world of spirits contented. He 
has done his duty. His father 
will meet him there, and com- 
mend him. Black Hawk is a 
true Indian, and disdains to cry 
like a woman. He feels for his 
wife, his children, and his 
friends. But he does not care 
for himself. He cares for the 
Nation and the Indians. They 
will suffer. He laments their 
fate. Farewell, my Nation! 
Black Hawk tried to save you, 
and avenge your wrongs. He 
drank the blood of some of the 
whites. He has been taken 
prisoner, and his plans are 
crushed. He can do no more. 
He is near his end. His sun 
is setting, and he will rise no 
more. Farewell to Black Hawk! 



Jefferson, Thomas (American, 
1743-1826). 

Self-Government — Sometimes 
it is said that man cannot be 
trusted with the government of 
himself. Can he, then, be trust- 
ed with the government of 
others? Or have we found an- 
gels in the form of kings to gov- 
ern him? Let history answer 
this question. 

Strong Government — I believe 
this, on the contrary, the strong- 
est government on earth. I be- 
lieve it is the only one where 
every man, at the call of the 
law, would fly to the standard 
of the law, and would meet in- 
vasions of the public order as 
his own personal concern. 



222 



Celebrated Passages 



Good Government — With all 
these blessings, what more is 
necessary to make us a happy 
and prosperous people? Still 
one thing more, fellow- citizens; 
a wise and frugal government, 
which shall restrain men from 
injuring one another, shall leave 
them otherwise free to regulate 
their own pursuits of industry 
and improvement, and shall not 
take from the mouth of labor 
the bread it has earned. This 
is the sum of good government; 
and this is necessary to close 
the circle of our felicities. 



Lincoln, Abraham (American, 
1809-1865). 

Quotations from Lincoln — Let 

us have faith that right makes 
might. 

With malice toward none with 
charity for all. 

Many have got into a habit 
of being dissatisfied. 

When you can't remove an 
obstacle plough around it. 

With firmness in the right, as 
God gives us to see the right. 

Be sure you put your feet in 
the right place, then stand firm. 

When you have written a 
wrathful letter— put it in the 
stove. 

If men never began to drink 
they would never become drunk- 
ards. 

Don't shoot too high — aim low 
and the common people will un- 
derstand. 

I have gi-eat respect for the 
semi-colon; it is a mighty handy 
little fellow. 



Thirty years I have been a 
temperance man, and am too 
old to change. 

Gold is good in its place; but 
loving, brave patriotic men are 
better than gold. 

The Lord must love common 
people — that's why he made so 
many of them. 

I am like the boy that stumped 
his toe; hurt too much to laugh 
and too big to cry 

I want it said of me that I 
plucked a thistle and planted a 
flower where I thought a flower 
would grow. 

Let not him who is homeless 
pull dow^n the house of another, 
but let him labor diligently to 
build one for himself. 

Take all of the Bible upon rea- 
son that you can, and the bal- 
ance on faith, and you will live 
and die a better man. 

If all that has been said in 
praise of woman were applied 
to the women of America, it 
would not do them justice for 
their conduct during this war. 
God bless the women of Amer- 
ica. 



Moody, Dwight L. (American, 
1837-1899). 

Character — Oh, young man, 
character is worth more than 
money, character is worth more 
than anything else in this wide 
world. I would rather have it 
said of me in my old age than 
to have a monument of pure 
gold built over my dead body 
reaching from earth to heaven — 
I would rather have it said that 



223 



How to Speak in Public 



"they could find no occasion 
against him except it be touch- 
ing the law of his God," than 
to have all this world can give. 
—(1880.) 



Macaulay, Thomas Babington 

(England, 1800-1859), 

The Life of Law — It is easy 
to say: "Be bold; be firm; defy 
intimidation; let the law have 
its course; the law is strong 
enough to put down the sedi- 
tious." Sir, we have heard this 
blustering before, and we know 
in what it ended. It is the blus- 
tering of little men, whose lot 
has fallen on a great crisis. 
Xerxes scourging the waves, 
Canute commanding the waves 
to recede from his footstool, 
were but types of the folly. The 
law has no eyes; the law has 
no hands; the law is nothing — 
nothing but a piece of paper 
printed by the king's printer, 
with the king's arms at the top 
— till public opinion breathes 
the breath of life into the dead 
letter. . . .—(1831.) 

The New Zealander in the 
Ruins of London — She (Rome) 
saw the commencement of all 
the governments and of all the 
ecclesiastical establis h m e n t s 
that now exist in the world; and 
we feel no assurance that she 
is not destined to see the end 
of them all. She was great and 
respected before the Saxon had 
set foot on Britain, — before the 
Frank had passed the Rhine. — 
when Grecian eloquence still 



flourished at Antioch, — when 
idols were still worshiped in the 
temple of Mecca. And she may 
still exist in undiminished vigor 
when some traveler from New 
Zealand shall, in the midst of 
a vast solitude, take his stand 
on a broken arch of London 
Bridge to sketch the ruins of 
St. Paul's. 



IVIiiler, Hugh (Scotland, 1802- 
1856). 

The Procession of Being — 
Never yet on Egyptian obelisk 
or Assyrian frieze, — where long 
lines of figures seem stalking 
across the granite, each charged 
with symbol and mystery, — have 
our Layards or Rawlinsons seen 
aught so extraordinary as that 
long procession of being which, 
starting out of the blank depths 
of the bygone eternity, is still 
defiling across the stage, and 
of which we ourselves form some 
of the passing figures — (From 
his Edinburgh Address.) 

The Sown Seeds of Life — He 
who keeps faith with all his 
humbler creatures, — who gives 
to even the bee and the dor- 
mouse the winter for which they 
prepare, — will to a certainty not 
break faith with man, — with 
man, alike the deputed lord of 
the present creation and the 
chosen heir of all the future. 
We have been looking abroad 
on the old geologic burying- 
grounds, and deciphering the 
strange inscriptions on their 
tombs; but there are other bury- 



224 



Celebrated Passages 



ing-grounds and other tombs,— 
solitary church- yards among the 
hills, where the dust of the 
martyrs lies, and tombs that 
rise over the ashes of the wise 
and good; nor are there want- 
ing, on even the monuments of 
the perished races, frequent 
hieroglyphics, and symbols of 
high meaning, which darkly in- 
timate to us that while their 
burial-yards contain but the de- 
bris of the past, we are to re- 
gard the others as charged with 
the sown seeds of the future.—' 
(From his Edinburgh Address.) 



Macpherson (Scotland, nine- 
teenth century). 

Invocation to The Sun — O 

thou that rollest above, round 
as the shield of my fathers! 
whence are thy beams, O sun! 
thy everlasting light! Thou com- 
est forth in thy awful beauty: 
the stars hide themselves in the 
sky; the moon, cold and pale, 
sinks in the western wave. But 
thou thyself movest alone: who 
can be a companion of thy 
course? 

The oaks of the mountain 
fall; the mountains themselves 
decay with years; the ocean 
sinks and grows again; the 
moon herself is lost in the heav- 
ens; but thou art forever the 
same, rejoicing in the bright- 
ness of thy course. 

When the world is dark with 
tempests, when thunders roll, 
and lightnings fly, thou lookest 



in thy beauty from the clouds, 
and laughest at the storm. 

But to Ossian thou lookest in 
vain; for he beholdest thy beams 
no more, whether thy yellow 
hair floats on the eastern clouds, 
or thou tremblest at the gates 
of the West. But thou art, per- 
haps, like me, for a season: thy 
years will have an end. Thou 
wilt sleep in thy clouds care- 
less of the voice of the morn- 
ing. 



Nixon, Richard (American, 
contemporaneous). 

The House Immortal — 

He who would build a house 
that all may see. 

In Truth should dig the deep 
foundation ways, 

Should lay the cornerstone of 
Love, and raise 

The walls of Steadfastness, then 
tenderly 

Bedeck the halls with Song and 
Poesy, 

And keep Contentment on the 
hearth ablaze. 

The windows Hope, the ascend- 
ing gables Praise. 

And over all the roof of Char- 
ity. 

Then let the tempests rage, the 
flames consume — 

Time's self were impotent to 
seal the doom 

Of such a house, where wan- 
derers may find 

Blazoned in gold above the wel- 
coming portal: 

Who enters here leaves hope- 
lessness behind. 



225 



How to Speak in Public 



Poe, Edgar Allan (American, 
1809-1849). 

The Beautiful In Speech — An 

immortal instinct, deep within 
tlie spirit of man, is thus, plain- 
ly, a sense of the beautiful. 
This it is which administers to 
his delight in the manifold 
forms and sounds and odors and 
sentiments amid which he ex- 
ists; and just as the lily is re- 
peated in the lake, or the eyes 
of Amaryllis in the mirror, so 
is the mere oral or written repe- 
tition of these forms and sounds 
and colors and odors and sen- 
timents a duplicate source of 
delight. But this mere repeti- 
tion is not poetry. He who shall 
simply sing, with however glow- 
ing enthusiasm, or with how- 
ever vivid a truth of descrip- 
tion, of the sights and sounds 
and odors and sentiments which 
greet him in common with all 
mankind, — he, I say, has yet 
failed to prove his divine title. 
There is still a something in 
the distance which he has been 
unable to attain. We have still 
a thirst unquenchable, to allay 
which he has not shown us the 
crystal springs. This thirst be- 
longs to the immortality of man. 
It is at once a consequence and 
an indication of his perennial 
existence. It is the desire of 
the moth for the star. It is no 
mere appreciation of the beauty 
before us, but a wild effort to 
reach the beauty above. In- 
spired by an ecstatic prescience 
of the glories beyond the grave, 
we struggle by multiform com- 



binations among the things and 
thoughts of time to attain a 
portion of that loveliness whose 
very elements, perhaps, apper- 
tain to eternity alone. — (From 
his lectures on the Poetic Prin- 
ciple.) 



Reed, Thomas B. (American, 
contemporaneous). 

The Bond of Universal Hu- 
manity — All things, including 
our own natures, bind us to- 
gether for deep and unrelent- 
ing purposes. 

Think what we should be, 
who are unlearned and brutish, 
if the wise, the learned, and the 
good, could separate themselves 
from us; were free from our su- 
perstitions and vague and fool- 
ish fears, and stood loftily by 
themselves, wrapped in their 
own superior wisdom. There- 
fore hath it been wisely or- 
dained that no set of creatures 
of our race shall be beyond the 
reach of their helping hand, — 
so lofty that they will not fear 
our reproaches, or so mighty as 
to be beyond our reach. If the 
lofty and the learned do not 
lift us up, we drag them down. 
But unity is not the only watch- 
word; there must be progress 
also. Since, by a law we can- 
not evade, we are to keep to- 
gether, and since we are to pro- 
gress, we must do it together, 
and nobody must be left behind. 
This is not a matter of philos- 
ophy; it is a matter of fact. 
No progress which did not lift 
all, ever lifted any. If we let 



226 



Celebrated Passages 



the poison of filthy diseases per- 
colate through the hovels of the 
poor. Death knocks at the pal- 
ace gates. If we leave to the 
greater horror of ignorance any 
portion of our race, the conse- 
quences of ignorance strike us 
all, and there is no escape. We 
must all move, hut we must all 
keep together. It is only when 
th*e rearguard comes up that 
the vanguard can go on. — 
(Girard College, 1898.) 



Stevenson, Robert Louis (Scot- 
land. 1850-1895). 

Requiem — ^As far back as 1880 
Robert Louis Stevenson was 
writing the beautiful "Requiem" 
which is engraved in the slab 
that covers his grave near Vaili- 
ma. Among the "New Letters," 
published in Scribner's Maga- 
zine, is one written to Sidney 
Colvin from San Francisco: 

"When I die . . . you can 
put upon my tomb . 
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 
Born 1850, of a family of 
Engineers, Died . . . 

"Nitor aquis." 
Home is the sailor, home 

from sea. 
And the hunter home from 
the hill. 
You, who pass this grave, 
put aside hatred; love kind- 
ness; be all services remem- 
bered in your heart and all 
offenses pardoned; and as 
you go down again among 
the living, let this be your 
question: Can I make some 



one happier this day before 

I lie down to sleep? Thus 

the dead man speaks to you 

from the dust; you will hear 

no more from him. 

"Who knows, Colvin, but I 

may thus be of more use when 

I am buried than ever when I 

was alive? The more I think 

of it, the more earnestly do I 

desire this. I may perhaps try 

to write it better some day; but 

that is what I want in sense. 

The verses are from a poem by 

me."— R. L. S. 



Wirt, William (American, 1772- 
1834). 

Jefferson's "Nunc Domine" — 
Those who surrounded the 
death-bed of Mr. Jefferson re- 
port that in the few short in- 
tervals of delirium that oc- 
curred, his mind manifestly re- 
lapsed to the age of the Revo- 
lution. He talked in broken 
sentences of the committees of 
safety, and the rest of that 
great machinery which he im- 
agined to be still in action. 
One of his exclamations was: 
"Warn the committee to be on 
their guard"; and he instantly 
rose in his bed, with the help 
of his attendants, and went 
through the act of writing a 
hurried note. But these inter- 
vals were few and short. His 
reason was almost constantly 
upon her throne, and the only 
aspiration he was heard to 
breathe was the prayer that he 
might live to see the Fourth of 
July. When that day came, all 



227 



How to Speak in Public 



that he was heard to whisper 
was the repeated ejaculation, — 
"Nunc Domine d i m i 1 1 a s" — 
(Now, Lord, let thy servant de- 
part in peace!) And the prayer 
of the patriot was heard and 
answered.— (1826.) 



(American, 



Webster, D a n i e 

1782-1852). 

Popular Government — The 

people's government, made for 
the people, made by the people, 
and answerable to the people. — 
(From a speech in the U. S. 
Senate, 1830.) 

Liberty and Union — When my 
eyes shall be turned to behold, 
for the last time, the sun in 
heaven, may I not see him shin- 
ing on the broken and dishon- 
ored fragments of a once glor- 
ious Union; on States dissev- 
ered, discordant, belligerant; on 
a land rent with civil feuds, or 
drenched, it may be, in fraternal 
blood! Let their last feeble and 
lingering glance rather behold 
the gorgeous ensign of the re- 
public now known and honored 
throughout the earth, still full 
high advanced, its arms and 
trophies streaming in their orig- 
inal lustre, not a stripe erased 
or polluted, nor a single star 
obscured, bearing for its motto 
no such miserable interrogatory 
as, "What is all this worth?" 
nor those other words of delu- 
sion and folly, "Liberty first, 
and union afterwards," but ev- 
erywhere, spread all over in 
characters of living light, blaz- 
ing on all its ample folds, as 



they float over the sea and over 
the land, and in every wind im- 
der the whole heavens, that 
other sentiment, dear to every 
true American heart, — Liberty 
and Union, now and forever, one 
and inseparable! — (Closing sen- 
tences of the "Reply to 
Hayne.") 



Washington, George (American, 
1732-1799). 

Quotations from Washington 
— Peace with all the world is my 
sincere wish. 

Good sense and honesty are 
qualities too rare and too pre- 
cious not to merit particular 
esteem. 

Knowledge is in every coun- 
try the surest basis of public 
happiness. 

Obser^'^e good faith and jus- 
tice towards all nations; culti- 
vate peace and harmony with 
all. 

Associate yourself with men 
of good quality if you esteem 
your own reputation, for 'tis 
better to be alone than in bad 
company. 

I hope I shall always possess 
flrmnes.'? and virtue to maintain 
what I consider the most en- 
viable of all titles, an honest 
man. 

Be not hasty to believe flying 
reports to the disparagement of 
others. 

My eyes have grown dim in 
the service of my country, but 
I have never doubted her jus- 
tice. 

I require no guard but the af- 
fections of the people. 



228 



Celebrated Passages 



Watterson, Henry (American, 
contemporaneous) . 

Opening the World's Fair— 
We look before and after, and 
we see, through the half-drawn 
folds of time, as through the 
solemn archways of some grand 
cathedral, the long procession 
pass, as silent and as real as a 
dream; the caravels of Colum- 
bus, tossing upon Atlantic bil- 
lows, have their sails refilled 
from the East and bear away to 
the West; the land is reached, 
and fulfilled is the vision whose 
actualities are to be gathered 
by other hands than his who 
planned the voyage and steered 
the bark of discovery; the long- 
sought golden day has come to 
Spain at last, and Castilian con- 
quests tread one upon another 
fast enough to pile up perpet- 
ual power and riches. 

But even as simple justice 
was denied Columbus, was last- 
ing tenure denied the Spaniard. 

We look again, and we see in 
the far Northeast the Old World 
struggle between the French 
and English transferred to the 
New, ending in the tragedy up- 
on the heights above Quebec; 
we see the sturdy Puritans in 
bell-crowned hats and sable gar- 
ments assail in unequal battle 
the savage and the elements, 
overcoming both to rise against 
a mJghtier foe; we see the gay 
but dauntless cavaliers, to the 
southward, join hands with the 
Roundheads in holy rebellion. 
And, lo, down from the green- 
walled hills of New England, 



out of the swamps of the Caro- 
linas, come faintly to the ear 
like far-away forest leaves 
stirred to music by autumn 
winds, the drum taps of the 
Revolution; the tramp of the 
minutemen, Israel Putnam rid- 
ing before; the hoof beats of 
Sumter's horse galloping to the 
front; the thunder of Stark's 
guns in spirit battle; the gleam 
of Marion's watch fires in 
ghostly bivouac ; and there, 
there, there in serried, saint- 
like ranks on Fame's eternal 
camping ground stand, — 
"The Old Continentals — 

In their ragged regimentals, 

Yielding not" — 
as, amid the singing of angels 
in heaven, the scene is shut 
out from our mortal vision by 
proud and happy tears. 

We see the rise of the young 
republic, and the gentlemen in 
knee breeches and powdered 
wigs who made the Constitu- 
tion. We see the little nation 
menaced from without. We see 
the riflemen in hunting shirt 
and buckskin swarm from the 
cabin in the wilderness to the 
rescue of country and home; and 
our hearts swell to see the sec- 
ond and final decree of inde- 
pendence won by the prowess 
and valor of American arms up- 
on the land and sea. 

And then, and then, — since 
there is no life of nations or of 
men without its shadow and its 
sorrow, — there comes a day 
when the spirits of the fathers 
no longer walk upon the battle- 
3 ments of freedom; and all is 



229 



How to Speak in Public 



dark; and all seems lost save 
liberty and honor, and, praise 
God! our blessed Union. With 
these surviving, who shall mar- 
vel at what we see today, — this 
land filled with the treasures of 
earth; this city, snatched from 
the ashes to rise in splendor 
and renown, passing the mind to 
preconceive? 

Truly, out of trial comes the 
strength of man; out of disas- 
ter comes the glory of the state. 
— (From the dedicatory address 
at the World's Fair, in Chicago, 
October 21st, 1892.) 



Zollicofer, Joachim (Switzer- 
land, ). 

Continuous Life and Everlast- 
ing Increase In Power — My ex- 
istence is not confined to this 
fleeting moment! It will con- 
tinue forever! My activity is 
not bounded by the narrow 
circle in which I now live and 
move; it will be ever enlarging, 
ever becoming more extensive 



and diversified. My intellectual 
powers are not subject to dis- 
solution and decay like dust; 
they shall continue in operation 
and effect forever; and the more 
I exert them here, the better I 
employ them, the more I effect 
by them, so much better shall 
I use them in the future world; 
so much the more shall I 
there effect by them. I see 
before me an incessant en- 
largement of my sphere of 
sight and action, an incessant 
increase in knowledge, in vir- 
tue, in activity, in bliss. Ths 
whole immensity of God's crea- 
tion, the whole unnumbered 
host of intelligent, thinking be- 
ings, all the hidden treasures 
of wisdom and knowledge in 
Jesus Christ, the unfathomable 
depths of Divine perfection, — 
what noble employments, what 
displays of my powers, what 
pure joys, what everlasting 
progress, do not these afford to 
my expectations? — (From a ser- 
mon on Psalms, viii. 5.) 



230 



Over One Thousand Topics 

for Orations, Speeches, 

Essays, Etc, 



"PUBLISHED as an aid to pupils in search 
^ of strong and attractive subjects for 
Orations, Speeches, Etc., covering a wide 
range of subjects, Political, Historical, Civil, 
Popular and otherwise — 

ALSO 

Model Questions for Debate, 

Preparation of Programs, 

Etc. 



pART SECOND of the Dickson Memory 
Lessons will give the pupil an idea how 
to prepare an outline of any of the following 
subjects. On page 28 of this Part the 
subject * 'Government" is carefully outlined 
and will serve as a model for other subjects. 
If the pupil desires to prepare a paper on the 
life of any prominent man or woman, the 
synopsis of Shakespeare s Life, page fifty-nine 
of this book, will prove of great help. 



Over One Thousand Topics for 

Orations, Speeches, Essays, 

Etc. 



(See Part II Dickson's Memory Lessons) 



1. Government (see Part II, 

Dickson's Memory Les- 
sons). 

2. The Power of a Purpose. 

3. True Greatness. 

4. Common Sense. 

5. Character Building. 

6. The Ladder of Success. 

7. Building the Ladder. 

8. The Ideal Realized. 

9. The House Not Made 

With Hands. 
10. The Battle of Principle. 
IL Self Help. 
12 Opportunity. 

13. Realities — Not Dreams. 

14. The Mastery of Life. 

15. The Harvest— What? 

16. Inspiration vs. Perspira- 

tion. 

17. Success. 

18. Failure — The S t e p ping- 

Stone to Success. 

19. Self Reliance. 

20. Ideals in Life. 

21. Work. 

22. The Secret of Progress. 

23. Intellectual Progress. 

24. Victory Thro' Defeat. 

25. Drifting— Whither? 

26. Against the Current. 



27. Ocean of Life. 

28. Adrift. 

29. Aim at the Stars. 

30. Under the Stars. 

31. Dream Life. 

32. Twilight Reveries. 

33. The Four Leaf Clover 

(Superstition vs. Hard 
Work). 

34. The High School of Ex- 

perience. 

35. Fallen Stars (Fallen He- 

roes). 

36. Thought Projection. 

37. Truth. 

38. The Power of Truth. 

39. Truth Shall Reign. 

40. The Next Step in Ad- 

vance. 

41. Modern Slaves (Victims 

of Habit). 

42. Bartered Birthrights. 

43. The Mess of Pottage. 

44. The New Watchword. 

45. Shadows. 

46. Signals. 

47. Sidewalk Education. 

48. Live Fish. 

49. Only Live Fish Swim Up 

Stream. 

50. The Cup of Cold Water. 



How to Speak in Public 



51. Charity — The 'Greatest of 

These." 

52. Little Deeds of Kindness. 

53. The Gauge of a Man. 

54. The Prince of Peace. 

55. Prince and Peasant. 

56. Rough Diamonds. 

57. Loss and Gain. 

58. The Balance Sheet of 

Life. 

59. Possibilities. 

60. The Firing Line. 

61. Signs of Our Times. 

62. Lest We Forget (see 

Kiplingg's Poem). 

63. Dreams. 

64. Night. 

65. Aftermath. 

66. After the Day. 

67. Ashes of Roses. 

68. Old Lavender and Lace. 

69. The Glow of Youth. 

70. Morning — Noon — Night. 

71. "Will-o'-the-Wisps." 

72. Pansies — for Thoughts. 
IZ. The Rose of Sharon. 

74. The After Glow. 

75. Climbing Sinai. 

76. The Autumn Woods. 
11. Voices of the Woods. 

78. Spring's Messengers. 

79. October Gleanings. 

80. Springtime Fancies. 

81. Gleanings. 

82. Bitter-Sweet. 

83. L'Envoi. 

84. Our Voyage. 

85. The Problem of Life. 

86. The Spider's Web . 

87. Tangled Meshes. 

88. The Spinners. 

89. The Toilers. 

90. The Breadwinners. 

91. Spendthrifts. 



92. 

93. 

94. 

95. 

96. 

97. 

98. 

99. 
100. 
101. 
102. 

103. 

104. 
105. 
106. 
107. 
108. 
109. 
110. 
111. 
112. 
113. 
114. 

115. 
116. 

117. 
118. 

119. 
120. 
121. 

122. 



123. 
124. 
125. 
126. 



All Is Well That Ends 
Well. 

The Stitch in Time. 

Self Reliance — the Key to 
Success. 

The Sunny Side of Life. 

Importance of Trifles. 

Lights That rail. 

Lights That Never Fail. 

Signal Lights. 

The Builders. 

The Prodigal Son. 

Excelsior (see Longfel- 
low's Poem). 

"Forever — Never I" ( see 
Longfellow's Poem). 

Whispering Winds. 

The Legend of the Winds. 

The Acadian Land. 

Driftwood. 

Nature. 

American Birds. 

Our Feathered Friends. 

In the Tree-Tops. 

Our American Forests. 

Trees of America. 

The Sentinels of the For- 
est. 

The Flora of America. 

The Mission of the 
Flowers. 

The Language of Nature. 

Amidst the Orange Blos- 
soms. 

Our American Rivers. 

The Father of Waters. 

Legends of the Missis- 
sippi. 

The Land of the Minne- 
haha (see Longfellow's 
Poem). 

The Great Lake Region. 

Out of Doors. 

Field and Forest. 

Nature — Life's Teacher. 



Topics for Orations, Speeches, Etc. 



127. 


Roses and Thorns. 


164. 


128. 


The Quiet Life. 


165. 


129. 


Sleep. 


166. 


130. 


The Mysteries of Sleep. 


167. 


131. 


The Hand That Rocks the 


168. 




Cradle. 


169. 


132. 


The Home. 




133. 


Mother ! 


170. 


134. 


Father ! 


171. 


135. 


In Our Grandmother's 


172. 




Day. 


173. 


136. 


Bachelor Girls. 


174. 


137. 


That Boy! 


175. 


138. 


Wanted— A Man ! 


176. 


139. 


Auld Lang Syne. 




140. 


The Friends of Other 


177. 




Days. 


178. 


141. 


Voices of the Past. 


179. 


142. 


The Passing of the Log 
Cabin. 


180. 


143. 


The Little Red School 


181. 




House. 


182. 


144. 


Home at Last. 


183. 


145. 


The Safe Port. 


184. 


146. 


Hunters of Men. 




147. 


Individuality. 


185. 


148. 


Trouble. 


186. 


149. 


Pandora. 


187. 


150. 


Breadth. 




151. 


The Strenuous Life. 


188. 


152. 


The Measure of a Man. 


189. 


153. 


Deeds — Not Years. 


190. 


154. 


Bone, Brawn and Brain. 




155. 


Good Biceps. 


191. 


156. 


Take Time by the Fore- 






lock. 


192. 


157. 


Tempus Fugit. 


193. 


158. 


Get On To Your Job. 


194. 


159. 


Waste Not— Want Not. 


195. 


160. 


Life— The Battlefield. 


196. 


161. 


The World— A Stage (see 






Shakespeare's Seven 


197. 




Ages). 


198. 


162. 


Over the Rapids. 


199. 


163. 


Land Marks. 


200. 



Prisms. 

What's in a Name? 

Unmarked Graves. 

the Better Part. 

The March of Events. 

Silver Threads Among the 
Gold. 

Noblesse Oblige. 

Caught by the Tide. 

Multum in Parvo. 

Nobility in Business. 

The Crown of Thorns. 

The Bronze Statue. 

The White Man's Burden 
(see Kipling's Poem). 

Heirs. 

Power of Gravity. 

Magnetism. 

The Transformation of 
Woman. 

Life — The Stage. 

Architects of Fate. 

The Leopard's Spots. 

Triumphs of Persever- 
ance. 

Evolution. 

Athletics. 

The Importance of Physi- 
cal Training. 

The Balance Wheel. 

Among Our Books. 

Chips from Our High 
School. 

The Uses of Books and 
Reading. 

An Age of Invention. 

The Inventors of Today. 

A-B-C. 

Two Types of the A-B-C. 

The Friends of the A-B-C 
(Teachers). 

Modern Education. 

The Realms of Thought. 

American Beauties. 

The Age of Fads. 



How to Speak in Public 



201. 

202. 
203. 
204. 
205. 
206. 

207. 
208. 
209. 
210. 
211. 
212. 



213. 
214. 

215. 

216. 
217. 

218. 

219. 

220. 
221. 
222. 
223. 
224. 
225. 
226. 
227. 

228. 
229. 
230. 
231. 

232. 
233. 
234. 
235. 
236. 



Fads and Foibles. 237. 

Beautiful Beliefs. 238. 

Ancient Myths. 239. 

The March of the Years. 240. 

Music — The Charmer. 241. 

The Major and Minor 242. 

Key. 

Famous Musicians. 243. 
The American Banquet. 

Destiny. 244. 

Who Is My Neighbor? 245. 

Life's Winter. 246. 

The Skeleton in Armor 247. 

(see Longfellow's 248. 

Poem). 249. 

Our Exits and Entrances. 250. 

Laziness. 251. 

The Famine (see Long- 252. 

fellow's Poem). 253. 

The Resources of Life. 254. 

When Knighthood Was in 255. 

Flower. 256. 

One Hundred Years from i57. 

Now. 258. 

Our Obligations to the 259. 

Past. 

The Voice of the Prophet. 260. 

Buttoned Up People. 261. 
Looking for a Man. 

Politeness. 262. 

Courage. 263. 

"Fama." 264. 
Gossip. 

Enthusiasms Indispensible 265. 

to Success. 266. 

The Right Hand Man. 267. 

Education vs. Schooling. 268. 

The Cornerstone. 269. 

The American College of 270. 

Today. 271. 

The American University. 272. 

The Power of the Press. 273. 

The Mission of the Press. 274. 

Women of America. 275. 
Woman's Sphere. 



Woman's Rights. 

Unburnished Gold. 

The Right "Knock." 

Loyalty to Purpose. 

Quo Vadis? 

The Days of the Bull 
Fight. 

The Chariot Race (see 
Ben Hur). 

Under False Colors. 

The Spy. 

Draining the Dregs. 

The Last Drop in the Cup. 

The Supreme Shadow. 

The Silent Partner. 

Hedged In. 

Driftwood Afloat. 

Secrets of the Sea. 

American Mines. 

The Underground Life. 

American Industries. 

Irrigation. 

Dry Farming. 

American Agriculture. 

The Passing of the Buf- 
falo. 

The Diver. 

Great Inventors and Their 
Works, 

Between the Lines. 

Out of the Past. 

School — College — Univer- 
sity. 

The Button Industry. 

Great Volcanoes. 

Onward and Upward. 

Every Inch a Man. 

Voices of Nature. 

Look Up — Not Down. 

That Still, Small Voice. 

Conscience, 

Youth and Age. 

The Stage. 

The Relation of the Stage 
to the Pulpit, 



Topics for Orations, Speeches, Etc. 



276. 


Modern Prophets. 


318. 


Child Life. 


277. 


People I Have Known. 


319. 


Our Youth of Toda^' 


278. 


Immortal Tongues. 


320. 


Life and Conduct. 


279. 


Heroes and Heroines. 


321. 


Try Again. 


280. 


The Optimist. 


322. 


Golden Deeds. 


281. 


Modern Pessimism. 


323. 


The Golden Rule. 


282. 


The Rubicon. 


324. 


Earth and Sky. 


283. 


The Great White Plague. 


325. 


Blocks with Which We 


284. 


The Metropolitan City. 




Build. 


285. 


Know Thyself. 


326. 


The "Three I's." 


286. 


The Casting of the Die. 


327. 


The Value of Labor. 


287. 


The Eternal Feminine. 


328. 


Now or Never. 


288. 


A Soldier of Fortune. 


329. 


Looking Forward. 


289. 


Gems of Immortality. 


230. 


The Ebb Tide. 


290. 


In the Cradle of the Deep. 


331. 


Faith and Character. 


291. 


Finis. 


332. 


Faithfulness. 


292. 


Move On! 


333. 


True Courage. 


293. 


The Golden Age. 


334. 


Wisdom. 


294. 


Looking Backward. 


335. 


At the Cross Roads. 


295. 


Outlook. 


336. 


The Turning Point. 


296. 


The Birth of Peace. 


337. 


The Star Land. 


297. 


Dreams of Yesterday. 


338. 


The Heavenly Lights. 


298. 


The Brotherhood of Man. 


339. 


The For-get-me-nots of 


299. 


Caught By the Tide. 




the Angels. 


300. 


Silence. 


340. 


The Endless Chain. 


301. 


The Pilot. 


341. 


Earth and Its Story. 


302. 


Sympathy. 


342. 


Earning Her Way. 


303. 


The Dove of Peace. 


343. 


Education a Science. 


304. 


Auf Wiedersehen. 


344. 


Education in Religion. 


305. 


Consolation. 


345. 


Famous Types of Wom- 


306. 


Great Captains. 




anhood. 


307. 


The Perfect Man. 


346. 


Social Equality. 


308. 


The Natural Law, 


347. 


Famous Philanthropists. 


309. 


When Earth's Last Pic- 


348. 


The Man of Resolution. 




ture is Painted (see 


349. 


Mountains of Despair. 




Kipling's Poem). 


350. 


Power Through Repose. 


310. 


My Ships. 


351. 


"American Mud" (Unjust 


311. 


At the End of the Rain- 




Criticism). 




bow. 


352. 


Universal Brotherhood. 


312. 


The Pleasures of Life. 


353. 


Brotherly Love. 


313. 


Sermons in Stone. 


354. 


Pluck vs. Luck. 


314. 


Representative Men. 


355. 


Crossing the Alps. 


315. 


Ideal Womanhood. 


356. 


The World's Greatest Dis- 


316. 


A Young Boy's Problems. 




asters. 


317. 


Being a Boy. 


357^ 


Masterpieces, 



How to Speak in Public 



358. The Master Craftsman. 

359. The Greatest AccompHsh- 

ments in Life. 

360. The Making of a Man. 

361. Qualities in Men. 

362. Man! 

363. Attain! Attain! Attain! 

364. When Thought Becomes 

Power. 

365. The Mastery of Self. 

366. The Mastery of Fate. 

367. As a Man Thinketh. 

368. Give Your Best. 

369. Our Heritage. 

370. Contentment. 

371. Peace ! Peace ! Peace ! 
2)72. Lend a Hand. 

Z1Z. Wisdom. 

374. The Power of Trouble. 

375. The Victory of Faith. 
2)16. Lost Opportunities. 
Zn. Idleness — A Curse. 

378. Nearing the Rapids. 

379. The Railway of Life. 

380. Cultivate Habits — Not 

Maxims. 

381. Cutting the Thread of 

Fate. 

382. The Stern Teacher— Ex- 

perience. 

383. How to Succeed. 

384. The Value of Attention. 

385. The Evolution of a Genius. 

386. The Fever of Conquest. 

387. Discouragement a Factor 

to Success. 

388. Failure and Character. 

389. Ancestors. 

390. Echoes from Another 

World. 

391. Seeing the Soul of Nature. 

392. In the Open. 

393. Woman the Enigma 

394. Men Who Live for Others. 



395. 



396. 

397. 
398. 

399. 
400. 
401. 
402. 
403. 

404. 
405. 

406. 
407. 



409. 
410. 
411. 

412. 
413. 
414. 
415. 

416. 
417. 

418. 
419. 
420. 
421. 

422 
423! 
424. 
425. 
426. 

427. 



Memory the Basis of All 
Knowledge (see Dick- 
son's Method). 

The Artistic Tempera- 
ment. 

My Native Land. 

Patriotism a Universal 
Sentiment. 

America. 

Our Presidents. 

Our Stars and Stripes. 

The Fight for Old Glory. 

The Destiny of Our Re- 
public. 

Young America. 

The American Soldier 
Abroad. 

Patriotism of Americans. 

The Man Who Rules Our 
Nation. 

The Nation's Hope. 

The Flag of Destiny. 

The Banner of Freedom. 

The Man Without a Coun- 
try. 

The Man with a Country. 

A New Democracy. 

The Republican Party. 

Woman's Advancement in 
America. 

The Practical Citizen. 

The Political Duties of a 
Citizen. 

Citizens in Embryo. 

Little Citizens. 

What Constitutes a State. 

What Constitutes a Citi- 
zen? 

The Grand Old Party. 

American Citizenship. 

Who Shall Rule? 

— We — The People. 

The Triumph of Democ- 
racy. 

The Price of Peace. 



Topics for Orations, Speeches, Etc. 



428. The Rise of Arbitration. 

429. Is Americanism Right? 

430. The Reign of Law. 

431. Perpetuity of the Republic. 

432. A Greater America, 

433. The True Patriotic Spirit. 

444. True Citizenship. 

445. The American Nobleman. 

446. American Panics. 

447. Our National Banking 

System. 

448. The Problem of Our Na- 
• tional Currency. 

449. What Is Money? 

450. Generals of Finance. 

451. The Protection of Finance. 

452. The Protection of Capital. 

453. Government Ownership. 

454. The American Pit. 

455. Protective Tariff. 

456. The Cost of Unity. 

457. International Philanthropy. 

458. The Mulct Law. 

459. Law Enforcement. 

460. Capital and Labor. 

461. The Labor Problem. 

462. The Child Labor Question. 

463. Judge Lindsay and His 

Boys. 

464. The Condition of Labor. 

465. The Value of Labor. 

466. The American Sweat Shop. 

467. The Moral Education of 

Our Children. 

468. Socialism — A Science. 

469. Anarchy — A Disease. 

470. The Red Flag of Anarchy. 

471. The Triumph of Anarchy. 

472. The Dangerous Flag. 

473. The Coming of the Mod- 

ern Vandal. 

474. Undesirable Immigration. 

475. Strikers and Their Strikes. 

476. The Great Unwashed. 

477. The American Hobo. 



478. 
479. 

480. 
481. 
482. 

483. 

484. 

485. 

486. 
487. 
488. 
489. 
490. 
491. 
492. 
493. 
494. 
495. 
496. 

497. 



498. 

499. 
50O. 
501. 
502. 
503. 
504. 
505. 

506. 

507. 
508. 
509. 
510. 



Man's Value to Society. 

The Science of Living 
with Men. 

Humanity Freed. 

Social Instinct. 

The Stranger at Our 
Gates. 

The Problem of the Pres- 
ent. 

Self Government and Self 
Respect. 

Puritanism and Democ- 
racy. 

Our Present Jury System. 

The Peace Pipe. 

International Peace. 

Volunteers. 

Our National Election. 

The American Ballot Box 

The Saloon Question. 

Putting on the Lid. 

Et, Tu Brute. 

Morality and Law. 

Every Man His Own 
Master. 

The Experience of the 
American Common- 
wealth. 

The Survival of the Fit- 
test. 

The Slav or Saxon? 

The Pride of the West. 

The Demands of Csesar. 

Our Diplomatic Service. 

The Civil Service. 

Our Law Makers. 

The Good Roads Move- 
ment. 

The Evolution of Political 
Parties. 

Modern Shylocks. 

American Graft. 

Municipal Reformation. 

A Plea for Better Civil- 
ization. 



How to Speak in Public 



511. 


American Barbarisms. 


547. 


512. 


A Man of the Country. 




513. 


The Problem of the Mid- 


548. 




dleman. 


549. 


514. 


Foremost Americans. 


550. 


515. 


The American Political 


551. 




Idea. 


552. 


516. 


Constructive Democracy. 


553. 


517. 


The Open Door Policy. 


554. 


518. 


Money— The Modern Idol. 


555. 


519. 


The Full Dinner Pail. 




520. 


The American Laborer. 


556. 


521. 


The Dinner Pail Man. 




522. 


The Moral Reformer. 


557. 


523. 


The Political Workshop. 


558. 


524. 


Relation of Our States to 






the Union. 


559. 


525. 


Rights and Duties of Citi- 


560. 




ens of the United States. 


561. 


526. 


The Rights of Man. 


562. 


527. 


Morality and Law. 




528. 


Great American Politi- 


563. 




cians. 


564. 


529. 


The Voice of the People, 




530. 


The Nimble Dollar. 


565. 


531. 


Our Living Age. 


566. 


532. 


The American Common- 


567. 




wealth. 


568. 


533. 


Old Virginia. 




534. 


Problems of "Dixie Land." 


569. 


535. 


Political Heroes of the 






19th Century. 


570. 


536. 


The Reform of Abuses. 


571. 


537. 


The Reform of the Courts. 


572. 


538. 


Modern Humanists. 


573. 


539. 


Great Corporations. 




540. 


The Workingman's Cru- 
sade. 


574. 


541. 


Interstate Commerce. 


575. 


542. 


Government Control of 
Corporations. 


576. 


543. 


Our Island Waterways. 


577. 


544. 


Class Legislation. 




545. 


American Statehood. 


578. 


546. 


The Parcel's Post. 





The Latin-American Re- 
public. 

Our National Guard. 

Our Southern Neighbors. 

The Panama Canal. 

The American Fisheries. 

A Period of Transition. 

The Majesty of the Law. 

The Middle Classes. 

In the Hearts of His 

Countrymen. 
•Wealth Versus Common- 
wealth. 

The Land We Live In. 

The Emancipation of the 
Russian. 

Freedom of the Press. 

American Independence. 

Our National Congress. 

The Supremacy of Our 
Navy. 

Chinese Exclusion. 

The People's War on 
Graft. 

Roosevelt the Man. 

The Real Venezuela. 

The Making of Tomorrow. 

Co-education of the White 
and Colored Races. 

What Becomes of O u i' 
Presidents. 

Uncle Sam's Business. 

The Liquor Question. 

The Milk Problem. 

Alcohol and the Com- 
munity. 

Veterans of the Pension 
Service. 

Pensions. 

Where the American 
Lives. 

Woman Suffrage in Eng- 
land. 

The Story of a Street 
(Wall Street). 



Topics for Orations, Speeches, Etc. 



579. The Romantic Side of In- 

dustry. 

580. Great Tariff Trutiis. 

581. Knockers, 

582. Thrift. 

583. The Rise and Fall of the 

Roman Empire. 

584. The Ides of March. 

585. The Building of Rome. 

586. The Rise and Fall of 

Spain. 

587. The Spanish Armada. 

588. The French Alliance. 

589. France — The Republic. 

590. The Lost Tribes. 

591. Mediaeval Architecture. 

592. Modern Architecture. 

593. The French Huguenots. 

594. The Passing of the Guillo- 

tine, 

595. The Rise of the Cross. 

596. The Fire Worshipers. 

597. The Exodus. 

598. The Rise of the Japanese 

Race. 

599. The Triumph of the Jew, 

600. The Ancient Jewish Com- 

monwealth. 

601. What America Owes the 

Jew. 

602. The Ghetto. 

603. Evolution of Civilization. 

604. Armenia. 

605. African Explorations. 

606. Around the World. 

607. Monte Carlo. 

608. The Days of the Crusades. 

609. The Feudal System. 

610. Influence of Feudalism. 

611. The Rise of the Christian 

Church. 

612. The Age of Darkness. 

613. The Rise of Free Cities. 

614. Hands Across the Sea. 

615. Old English Customs. 



616. The Magna Charta. 

617. The House of Commons. 

618. Westminster Abbey. 

619. Our English Cousins. 

620. An English Tyrant. 

621. The London Tower. 
622 The Bridge of Sighs. 

623. The ConciHation, 

624. Makers of English His- 

tory. 

625. Famous English Queens. 

626. England's Court of Justice. 

627. English School System. 

628. The "^aybrick Case. 

629. Knights of the Round 

Table. 

630. Old Oxford. 

631. In the Days of Robin 

Hood. 

632. Famous Cathedrals. 

633. The Spirit of the Britons. 

634. The Holy Grail. 

635. The Palace of Art 

636. The Passing of the Duel. 

637. China — The Shadow of the 

World. 

638. The Art and Literature of 

China. 

639. Castles of Spain. 

640. The Romance of the East. 

641. The Land of the Nile. 

642. In the Desert Country. 

643. The Industrial Revolution. 

644. The Power Behind the 

Throne. 

645. The Land of the Rhine. 

646. Die Wacht Am Rhine. 

647. Russia — The Land of Ter- 
• ror. 

648. Russian Expansion. 

649. The Russian Refugee. 

650. The Rising Empire. 

651. The Mission of the Great 

Republic. 

652. The Fifteenth Century. 



How to Speak in Public 



653. Discovery of America. 

654. Social Discontent — The 

Ogre of the Fifteenth 
Century. 

655. A Lover of Truth (King 

Alfred). 

656. Discoveries and Discov- 

erers. 

657. The Norsemen. 

658. Columbus and His Dis- 

coveries. 

659. The Battle of the Strong. 

660. The Old Cycle — Democ- 

racy, Tyranny, Anarchy. 

661. An American Invasion. 

662. Roman Games and Amuse- 

ments. 

663. The Dark Ages. 

664. An Age of Progress. 

665. The Dawn of Civilization. 

666. Humanity Freed. 

667. The Secret of Progress. 

668. Intellectual Progress. 

669. The Name "America." 

670. Religious Persecutions in 

America. 

671. Old Colony Days. 

672. William Penn. 

673. The Indian Wars. 

674. "Go West, Young Man." 

675. The Pathfinder. 

676. Noted Characters of Our 

Age. 

677. Famous American Women. 

678. American Womanhood. 

679. Pathfinders and Pioneers. 

680. Witchcraft in America. 

681. Colonization. 

682. The Cliff Dwellers. 

683. The Mound Builders. 

684. Fife and Drum. 

685. Charters and Assembles. 

686. The Struggle for Liberty. 

687. The Thirteen Colonies. 

688. Colonial Strife. 



689. Then and Now. 

690. Our Puritan Ancestors. 

691. A Devout Colony. 

692. Followers of the "Inner 

Light." 

693. The Pilgrim Fathers. 

694. The American Revolution. 

695. The Declaration of Inde- 

pendence. 

696. The Spirit of 76. 

697. The Boys of 76. 

698. The Boston Tea Party. 

699. The American Crisis. 

700. The Passing of the Spin- 

ning Wheel. 

701. The War of 1812. 

702. Abuse of Hospitality. 

703. Privates and Officers. 
704 Our Army. 

705. Our Navy. 

706. The Blue and the Gray. 

707. Marching Thro' Georgia. 

708. The Building of the Amer- 

ican Navy. 

709. The American Proposition. 

710. America — The Educator. 

711. The American Way. 

712. Our American Manner- 

isms. 

713. Western Progress. 

714. On the Trail of the Emi- 

grant. 

715. A Century's Progress. 

716. The Meaning of War. 

717. Our Rebellious States. 

718. Our New States. 

719. The "Lone Star State." 

720. The Monitor. 

721. The Unknown Dead. 

722. Unknown Heroes. 

723. The Spy. 

724. The Story of the Indian. 

725. The Going of the Red 

Man. 



Topics for Orations, Speeches, Etc. 



lid. The Passing of the Wig- 762. 

warn. 763. 

727. Our Ward— The Indian. 764. 

728. The Cry of the Red Man. 

•729. An Extinct Race. 765. 

730. The Wrongs of the Red 766. 

Man. 1Q. 

731. The Race Problem. 778. 
1Z2. The Cry of the Black Man. 779. 
1Z2>. Caste. 780. 

734. The Monroe Doctrine. 781. 

735. The Louisiana Purchase. 782. 
1Z(i. The Missouri C o m p r o - 783. 

mise. 784. 
IZI. Westward Ho ! 

738. The Romance of the W^est. 785. 

739. The Merrimac and Moni- 786. 

tor. 787. 

740. Union Heroes. 788. 

741. The American Negro. 789. 

742. The Rise of the African 790. 

Race. 791. 

743. The Switzerland of Amer- 792. 

ica. 793. 

744. American Rockies. 

745. The American Rialto. 794. 

746. The Bulls and the Bears. 795. 

747. The Black Man's Burden. 796. 

748. Great American Disasters. 797. 

749. Causes of American 

Panics. 798. 

750. State Rights. 

751. Our Militia. 799. 

752. Southern Prisons. 

753. The Days of '61. 800. 

754. Young America. 801. 

755. Bovs of the Old Brigade. 

756. Forty Years Ago. 802. 

757. The Passing of the Old 

Plantation. 803. 

758. The Passing of the Slave. 804. 

759. The New South. 805. 

760. The Spanish-American 806. 

War. 807. 

761. The Liberation of Cuba. 



Across the Continent. 

Our American Railroads. 

Evolution in Transporta- 
tion. 

The Age of Invention. 

Our Steel Industry. 

Our American Industries. 

The Wage Question. 

Municipal Ownership. 

American Graft. 

The American Newsboy. 

Agriculture in America. 

American Lumber Camps. 

The Man with the Hoe. 
(See Markham's Poem) 

The American Farmer. 

Our Life Saving Stations. 

The Light-House Keeper. 

The Money Question. 

Our Currency. 

i\Iasqueraders. 

The Modern Corporation, 

A Maker of History. 

The Daughters of the 
South. 

Our Public Servants. 

The Afaking of America. 

The Land of Chivalry. 

Scandinavia — The Birth- 
place of Chivalry. 

The Land of the Midnight 
Sun. 

The Despotism of the 
East. 

The Freedom of the West. 

The Rise and Fall of 
Sparta. 

The "Golden Age" of 
Athens. 

Roman Citizenship. 

The Olympic Games. 

The European Intruder. 

The War of the Roses. 

Marathon — The Turning 
Point 



How to Speak in Public 



808. The Holy Wars. 

809. In the Days of the Shep- 

herd Kings. 

810. The Lofty North. 

811. Around the Great Chinese 

Wall. 

812. Roman Holidays. 

813. Berlin— A City That Cares 

for Its People. 

814. The Age of Shakespeare. 

(See Dickson's How to 
Speak in PubHc.) 

815. General Kuropatkin. 

816. The Second Founder of 

the Persian Empire. 

817. Cyrus the Great 

818. The Athenian Law Giver 

(Solon). 

819. Alexander the Great. 

820. Aristides the Just. 

821. The "Judas" of the 

Greeks. 

822. The Hero of Thermopy- 

lae. 

823. The Athenian Traitor 

(Alcibiades). 

824. The Law Giver of Civili- 

zation. 

825. Socrates. 

826. An Unknown King 

(Caesar). 

827. Pluto. 

828. The Serpent of the Nile 

(Cleopatra). 

829. The Great Conspirator 

(Cataline). 

830. Rome's Greatest Orator. 

831. The Tyrant of Rome. 

832. The "Scourge of God" 

(Attila). 

833. William the Conqueror. 

834. Robert Bruce. 

835. The First of the Human- 

ists (Petrarch). 



836. The "Fame" of the Tus 

can People (Dante). 

837. Peter the Simple. 

838. William the Silent. 

839. The Hungarian Patriot 

(Kossuth). 

840. The Hero of the Swiss 

(William Tell). 

841. John Knox. 

842. John Wycliff. 

843. The Angel of the French. 

844. The Maid of Orleans- 

Joan of Arc. 

845. Great Reformers. 

846. The Hero of the Refor- 

mation. 

847. Martin Luther. 

848. William Prince of Orange. 

849. The Unspeakable Turk. 

850. The Teutonic Empire 

Builder. 

851. The Builder of an Em- 

pire. 

852. A Man of Destiny— Na- 

poleon, 

853. The Spanish Curse 

— Charles the 5th. 

854. The Great Bear of the 

North. 

855. Peter the Great. 

856. Gustavus Adolphus. 

857. The Man of the Iron Will 

— Bismark. 

858. The Man of the Iron 

Mask. 

859. The Spoiled Child of Eu- 

rope — Greece. 

860. Michael Angelo. 

861. Artists of the Old School. 

862. Famous Animal Painters. 

863. John Wesley — the Found- 

er of Methodism. 

864. Moody. 

865. Charlemagne. 



Topics for Orations, Speeches, Etc. 



866. The Power Behind the 

Throne (Richelieu). 

867. Henry the Eighth. 

868. Mazarin. 

869. The Great Protector. 

870. Under the Red Robe. 

871. Louis the Fourteenth. 

872. Good Queen Bess. 

873. The Reign of Victoria. 

874. The Queen of the East. 

875. Flower of France. 

876. The Edict of Caracalla. 

877. Our Martyred Heroes. 

878. The Grim Chieftain (King 

Philip). 

879. The Sage of Monticello 

(Jefferson). 

880. Webster and the Consti- 

tution. 

881. The Defender of the Con- 

stitution. 

882. The Framers of the Con- 

stitution. 

883. The Redeemer of the Re- 

public. 

884. John Randolph Roanoke. 

885. The Spy of the Rebellion. 

886. General Richard Mont- 

gomery. 

887. John Brown. 

888. The Great Emancipator. 

889. The American Railsplitter. 

890. Abraham Lincoln. 

891. The Forerunner of Lin- 

coln. 

892. Old Hickory. 

893. Old Rough and Ready. 

894. Stephen A. Douglas. 

895. The Spy of the Revolution. 

896. Our Martyred Presidents. 

897. Our Martyred Hero 

(Lincoln). 

898. William Lloyd Garrison. 

899. Heroes of the Spanish 

War. 



900. The Future of the Fili- 

pino. 

901. Franklin and His Work. 

902. The Wizard of Menlo 

Park (Edison). 

903. Frances E. Willard. 

904. The Great Philanthropist 

— Helen Gould. 

905. Helen Keller. 

906. The Man from Nebraska. 

907. The Orator of the Platte. 

908. The Silver Tongued Ora- 

tor. 

909. John D. Rockefeller. 

910. The Richest Woman of 

America. 

911. England's Grand Old Man 

(Gladstone). 

912. The Great English Re- 

former (Dickens). 

913. The Blind Poet ot Eng- 

land (Milton). 

914. Our American Writers. 

915. Our American Poets. 
?16. The Quaker Poet (Whit- 
tier). 

917. The Children's Poet 

(Longfellow). 

918. The Poet of the Study 

Window ( Lowell ) . 

919. The Poet of Nature 

(Bryant). 

920. The "Autocrat." 

921. The Poet of the People 

(Riley). 

922. Our American Novelists. 

923. Our American Humorists. 

924. The Humor of Mark 

Twain. 

925. Fletcherism. 

926. The Emanuel Movement. 

927. "Coffin Nails." 

928. Christian Science. 

929. An American Tramp 

Abroad. 



How to Speak in Public 



930. American Caricaturists. 

931. Chips from an American 

Workshop. 

932. Our Western Writers. 

933. The Poet of the Sierras 

(Joaquin Miller). 

934. The Greatest Dramatist. 

935. The "Great Unknown" 

(Walter Scott). 

936. Hamlet. 

937. Jean Valjean. 

938. Fanchon. 

939. A French Martyr (Drey- 

fus). 

940. The Exiles of Siberia. 

941. English Traits. 

942. Legends from the Red 

Man's Forest. 

943. Foot Prints of Travel. 

944. Heroes of the Nineteenth 

Century. 

945. Modern Humanists. 

946. A Knight of the 20th Cen- 

tury. 

947. Famous Types of Woman- 

hood. 

948. English Men of Letters. 

949. The Northmen. 

950. The Heroic Age. 

951. The Trinity in Civilization. 

952. The Ascendency in Per- 

sonal Power. 

953. The Keys of the King- 

dom. 

954. Supremacy and Conserva- 

tism of Personal Power. 

955. The Straight and Nar- 

row Path. 

956. The Other Wise Men. 

957. The Eye of the Needle. 

958. The Sifting of Peter. 

959. Barabbas. 

960. Judas— The Betrayer. 

961. Ananias. 



962. Am I My Brother's 

Keeper ? 

963. The Mote in My Broth- 

er's Eye. 

964. Two Masters. 

965. The Beatitudes. 

966. Our Father. 

967. A Little Child Shall Lead 

Them. 

968. Our Debtors. 

969. Forgiveness. 

970. The Greatest Thing in 

the World. 

971. Our Talents. 

972. Let Your Lights Shine. 

973. The Potter's Clay. 

974. Whatsoever Things Are 

Pure. 

975. Creed and Deed. 

976. Great American Revivals. 

977. Modern Revivals. 

978. Modern Evangelists. 

979. Ruth. 

980. Mary and Martha. 

981. Gethsemane. 

982. Saul of Tarsus. 

983. The Cedars of Lebanon. 

984. The Forbidden Fruit. 

985. Our Father's Choice. 

986. The Bitter Cup. 

987. Whosoever Believeth. 

988. Faith— The Prime Ele- 

ment of Success. 

989. Freedom of the Individ- 

ual. 

990. The Realms of Thought. 

991. I Will, The Victor. 

992. Conscienc e — A Hard 

Master. 

993. David and Jonathan. 

994. In the Vallcv of Sorrows. 

995. Nazareth. 

996. The Crescent and the 

Cross. 

997. In hoc Signo Vinces. 



Topics for Orations, Speeches, Etc. 



998. Samson and Delilah. 

999. Eternity! 

1000. Silence. 

1001. When He Comes— Then 

What? 

1002. Sunshine. 

1003. A Lowly King. 

1004. The Sea of Galilee. 

1005. The Pharisee and Pub- 
lican. 

1006. Passing Through Fire. 

1007. Weighed in the Balance. 

1008. David the Outlaw. 

1009. "It Is Finished." 

1010. The Via Dolorosa. 



1011. Knights of the White 

Cross. 

1012. Go and Tell. 

1013. The Story of Esther. 

1014. The Life Eternal. 

1015. Peace on Earth — Good 

Will to Men ! 

1016. The Glory of Sacrifice. 

1017. On Being Happy. 

1018. Cutting the Thread of 

Fate. 

1019. Poise and Power. 

1020. The Awakened Church. 

1021. Church and Scholarship. 

1022. Acres of Diamonds. 



Model Questions for Debate- 
Preparation of Programs 



As explained on page 51 of this book, debating is excellent 
training for concentrating the mind, directing ideas into a defi- 
nite channel, and quickening individual thought. As Orison 
Swett Marden, the editor of Success and author of many 
excellent books on self-help, has well said, "Nothing is more 
noticeable during the education of a young man than his 
rapid growth and improvement when he takes active part in 
debating and public speaking. No one can afford to neglect 
any means of self-culture or self-improvement, the lack of 
which would perhaps embarrass him in the future in any 
position that he might be called upon to occupy. Supposing 
young Roosevelt, with stooped shoulders and delicate health, 
had said to himself, 'What's the use for me to try to cultivate 
good manners or to practice in a debating society?' It is the 
privilege of every American to know that the highest position 
in the world may possibly come to him, and the only sure 
way to be prepared for that position is to make ever)' occa- 
sion a great occasion. To this end there is no accomplish- 
ment more practically beneficial to the average man or woman 
than the ability to think clearly and give definite expression 
to one's thoughts. 

The following programs for debate and discussion, ar- 
ranged from The Success Club Debater, will serve as excel- 
lent models. 

"Every program should be arranged symmetrically. There 
should be a relationship of all parts. Select, first, the leading 
feature for a foundation to build upon. This may be either 
a debate or an address. Then construct all the other parts 
upon this, just as a carpenter builds a house. Be careful, 
first, that the subject is entertaining and amusing. Second, 



Model Questions for Debate 

instructive and thought-generating. Third, that it contains 
sufficient variety. 

"The following subjects and discussions may be modified 
and changed to suit the conditions of any audience. Each 
program may be supplemented by musical numbers, recita- 
tions, and special pains should be taken to introduce sufficient 
humor to lighten the heavy subjects." 

"Lives of Great Men Oft Remind Us" 

A series of programs based upon the example and influ- 
ence of great American men. 

I. 

1. Introductory Address — The Lasting Influence of a Great 

Life. 

2. Discussion — What Quality in the Character of Washing- 

ton has Contributed Most to His Fame? 

3. Character Sketch — Washington : The Father of the Re- 

public. 

IL 

1. Character Sketch — Franklin : The Dean of Yankee Phi- 

losophers. 

2. Debate — Resolved: That it is not "Easier to Earn Money 

than to Spend it Well." 

3. Paper — Is there as Great a Chance to Rise in the Print- 

ing and Pubhshing Business Today as There Was in 
the Time of Franklin? 
Note. — Probably no club will fail to supplement this pro- 
gram with some number dealing zvith the Proverbs of Poor 
Richard. 

III. 

\. Character Sketch — Jefiferson : The Founder of the Demo- 
cratic Ideas. 

2. Debate— Resolved : That the Republican Party Today 

Represents the Democratic Idea of Jefferson Better 
than Does the Democratic Party. 

3. Address — Opportunities in Politics. By a Politician. 



How to Speak in Public 

IV. 

1. Character Sketch — Marshall : The Great Expounder of the 

Constitution. 

2. Address — Opportunities in Law. By a Lawyer. 

3. Discussion — Should the Constitution be Revised to Meet 

Modern Conditions? 



1. Character Sketch — Greeley : The Patriarch of Journalism. 

2. Debate — Resolved: That the Press Exerts Greater Influ- 

ence than the Pulpit. 

3. Address — How to Become a Newspaper Man. By a 

Journalist. 

VI. 

1. Character Sketch — Lincoln : The Preserver of the Re- 

public. 

2. Discussion : Should the Negro be Treated as a Social 

Equal of the White? 

3. Paper — Needed Reforms Demanding Great Statesman- 

ship. 

VIL 

1. Character Sketch — Beecher: The Greatest Preacher of 

His Time. 

2. Discussion — Is the Influence of the Pulpit Declining? 

3. Address — Opportunities in the Ministry. By a Clergyman. 

VIII. 

1. Character Sketch — Emerson : The Sage of Concord. 

2. Discussion — The Best Book I Ever Read. 

3. Address — How to Become a Writer. 

IX. 

1. Character Sketch — Grant : Our Greatest Soldier. 

2. Debate — Resolved : That War Is Unnecessary, and that 

all Disputes Should Be Settled by Arbitration. 

3. Paper — Plow to Enter West Point or Annapolis. 



Model Questions for Debate 

X. 

1. Character Sketch — Edison : The Wizard of Menlo Park. 

2. Discussion — What Has Been the most Beneficial Inven- 

tion of the Past Twenty Years? 

3. Paper — Some Things that are still to be Invented. 

Stepping Stones to Commercial Success 

A series of programs for clubs whose membership is com- 
posed l3.TgQ\y of men and women engaged in commercial 
callings. 

I. 

1. Introductory Address — What is Commercial Success? By 

a commercial teacher or a business man. 

2. Debate — Resolved: That there are Fewer Opportunities 

for One to Rise in Commercial Life Today than 
there were Fifty Years Ago. 

3. Paper — Don't Wait for Your Opportunity; Make It! 

II. 

1. Talk — How to Get, and Keep, a Situation. By an employe 

who has done both. 

2. Discussion — Is Influence Stronger than Ability in Secur- 

ing Promotion? 

3. Contest — Each member writes an application for a certain 

position. A prize to be awarded to the one voted 
the best. 

III. 

1. Address or Paper — Master the Details of Your Work. 

2. Reading — Aids to Business System, Selections from "Sys- 

tem" and other commercial journals. 

3. Discussion — What ]\Iodern Invention Has Been the Great- 

est Aid to Commercial Interests ; i. e., Telephone, 
Typewriter, Eelevator, etc. 

IV. 
1. Talk — Honesty as a Policy and as a Principle. 



How to Speak in Public 

Debate — Resolved: That Intense Competition Has Been 
the Greatest Cause of the Decline in the Standard 
of Business Integrit}'. 

Quotation Contest — Every member hands in a quotation 
relating to honesty. These are read aloud and vote 
taken as to which is best. The collection of quota- 
tions may be given as a prize. 



1. Talk or Paper — Sociability as a Success-Winning Ability. 

2. Progressive Talk — Each member is given a card on which 

ten or more subjects for conversation are named. 
In the way usual in progressive games, each subject 
is discussed for three minutes. No two members talk 
together more than once. When all subjects have 
been discussed, each member writes on the back of 
his card his vote as to which is the best conversa- 
tionalist. 

3. Opinions — What Is the most Important of the Qualities 

of a True Gentleman? Why? 

VI. 

1. Address— Health as Your Capital. By a Physician. 

2. Debate — Resolved: That the Growing Interest in Athlet- 

ics Has Done More for the Cause of Good Health 
than any other Influence of the past Fifty Years. 

3. Paper — Notable Examples of Invalids who Have Suc- 

ceeded in Spite of their Handicap. 

VII. 

1. Address — Tact Versus Talent. 

2. Examples — Each member gives one Example, personal or 

otherwise, where tact was used advantageously. 

3. Story — Conquered by Common Sense. The members 

should submit original stories suggested by this title. 
The best ones to be i;ead to the club. 



Model Questions for Debate 

VIII. 

1. Talk — Starting a Savings Bank Account. By a Banker. 

2. Debate — Resolved : That Economy is a Greater Advantage 

to Commercial Success than Energy. 

3. Contest — A month previous to the time when this pro- 

gram is rendered the members should each have re- 
ceived a certain sum to invest. Their accounts of the 
result of their investment should form this nuhiber. 

IX. 

1. Address — Commercialism in Politics. By a Politician. 

2. Discussion — Is It the Duty of Every Man to Participate 

in Politics Further than Voting? 

3. Paper — Some Things that Every Man Should Know about 

his Country. 

X. 

1. Address — Little Things that Keep Employes Down. 

2. Symposium — Intemperance, Cigarettes, Unsteadiness, Un- 

tidyness, Inaccuracy, etc, 

3. Reading — Chapter on "Be Brief," from "Pushing to the 

Front." 

An Evening With Shakespeare 

1. Address — Who He Was. When and Where He Lived. 

Parents. Station in Life. Friends. (See page 58.) 

2. Symposium — Quotations from Plays. 

3. Readings and Impersonations by Members. 



Memory 

A Lecture Delivered Before the Library 

Club, Chicago, Mercy Hospital, the 

Auditorium, Chicago, and the 

Metaphysical Society, Blanch- 

ard Hall, Los Angeles, 

California. 



By 




Chicago 

Dickson School of Memory 

Auditorium Building 



Copyright, 1909. 

by 

HENRY DICKSON 




HE Lecture accentuates the 
idea that Memory is not only 
the basis of personal exist- 
ence here, but insofar as we 
may judge the only possible 
basis of individual immortal- 
ity. That it was a part of the final mys- 
tery at Elusis and formed a part of the 
doctrine communicated to the initiated at 
the Elusinian mysteries, proving the 
persistence of personality after death and 
the assurance felt by most religious 
thinkers that the individual soul will not 
lose the memory or the affections of its 
earthly life. Also giving instances of 
Ancestral Memory, Dual Memory, Mul- 
tiple Personality, etc. 



♦*® memorteel 
® paet tbat ie/' 

— (5eotae Bitot 



IB 



'EMORY is the basis of all knowledge, 
knowledge of ourselves, knowledge of 
others, knowledge of personal continu- 
ity. Man is in a great degree Memory. Destroy 
Memory and all personal identity is lost and we 
would be strangers in the world in which we live. 
The Psalmist attributed memory to the Al- 
mighty when he said, "In everlasting remem- 
brance shall the righteous be held;" that is, the 
good are to live forever in the memory of God. 
Thus the Creator has endowed man with His 
own faculty, memory, which is a striking intima- 
tion, a foreshadowing of immortality. So mem- 
ory becomes not only the basis of personal exist- 
ence here, but insofar as we may judge, the only 
possible basis of individual immortality. The 
Greeks did right in making memory the mother 
of the Muses. By memory we not only live in 
the present, but also in the past. It is not only 



Page Six MEMORY 



the book of reminiscence, but also the suggester 
of hope and expectation. It refreshes like the 
refrain of an old song or terrorizes like the re- 
morse of a Macbeth. 

When the poet Moore sang *'Oft in the stilly 
night," we know that his recollections must have 
been pleasant ones — a life well spent, which en- 
abled him to behold scenes long vanished, forms 
that for years had ceased to be corporeal, to 
hear sweet voices long ago resolved into the 
primeval silence. Let us listen to him for a 
moment as he recalls the past : 

Oft in the stilly night, 

Ere slumber's chain has bound me, 
Fond memory brings the light, 

Of other days around me. 
The smiles, the tears of boyhood's years, 

The words of love then spoken, 
The eyes that shone, now dimmed and gone, 

The cheerful hearts unbroken. 
Thus in the stilly night, 

Ere slumber's chain has bound me, 
Fond memory brings the light, 

Of other days around me. 



MEMORY Page Seven 



Thus every individual has a memory and in 
its magic mirror we can recall the days, the 
scenes of long ago and also suggest hope and 
expectation of happiness for the days to come. 

But we must invoke these powers, we must 
cultivate this faculty, we must turn aside for a 
few minutes daily from our insistent environment 
long enough to obtain a glimpse of these beauti- 
ful pictures that hang on memory's wall. When 
we have learned that there is no real necessity 
for a dependence upon an external stimulus to 
awaken a desired state, but that once experienced, 
we have the power of reproducing it within our- 
selves through memory, we will have advanced 
one more step in the masterly realization of 
ourselves. This power may be cultivated or it 
may be discouraged — it may become an embel- 
lisher of life and an impetus to hope and success. 

Let me ask you for a moment to go back with 
me long enough to glance at some of the many 
pictures that dwell in the halls of memory. To 
do so, I will ask your consideration while I recall 
the familiar poem "Twenty Years Ago." Let 



Page Eight MEMORY 



us go back with the poet to the scenes of our 
youth; let us feel once more the sweep of the 
wind across the hills ; let us recall the old school 
house, the faces of old friends long since de- 
parted — let us live it all over again for the 
moment. 

Commonplace, yes, but it is this commonplace 
faculty which, when raised to vivid intensity 
becomes the power of the artist, the poet, the 
business man, the genius, and we miss all these 
because we allow the insistent facts of the pres- 
ent to usurp our whole attention and never yield 
to this renewal of memory and deeper conscious- 
ness. Dreams, perhaps, but such dreams as 
contribute to happiness. Impractical ! No. If 
properly used they will incite us to renewed ac- 
tivity and thus enable us to conserve and reclaim 
all our wasted and neglected possibilities. 

A gentleman recently took his aged mother 
back to her early home where she had lived until 
six years of age, and which she then for the first 
time visited after an interval of seventy-seven 
years. He described their journey to the little 



MEMORY Page Nine 



village among the hills, the first glimpse of the 
old church, the school house, the entering of the 
old home, and all the many associations of her 
past life came back to her vividly and swiftly and 
these were emotions of pleasure, and it seemed 
to her a hallowed day. As to the son, he said it 
incited him to renewed courage to press on in 
his life's work. 

To those who have forgotten I would say, 
that it is possible to train the memory to recall 
scenes of the past, by reviewing some vital expe- 
rience of one year ago, then two years ago, and 
so continue concentrating the mind daily for a 
short time on some important event of every 
year. By concentrating the mind in this way 
you will be startled into a sense of the power of 
your mind. The past will pass in review before 
you like a beautiful dream, and you will know 
that you are related to all the past as well as the 
future, and that every thought and act that has 
entered your life has been indelibly stamped on 
your inmost consciousness, you will also know 
that you are likewise shaping your future. 



Page Ten MEMORY 



There is a certain function in the brain of 
every individual which is called inspirational. 
We have all felt its influence. Genius and imag- 
ination does not apply merely to the poet or pro- 
fessional man, but to every class of humanity, 
so whenever a thought of unusual value occurs 
to your mind, immediately write it down, as 
when recalled it stimulates the mind to create 
more thoughts of the same character. 

THE UNREMEMBERED FRAGMENTS OF A 
LOST MEMORY. 

BY FLORENCE WILKINSON. 

Where have they gone, the unremembered things, 

The hours, the faces, 
The trumpet-call, the wild boughs of white spring? 
Would I might pluck you from forbidden spaces, 
All ye, the vanished tenants of my places! 

Stay but one moment, speak that I may hear, 

Swift passer-by ! 
The wind of your strange garments in my ear 
Catches the heart like a beloved cry 
From lips, alas, forgotten utterly. 



MEMORY Page Eleven 



An odor haunts, a color in the mesh, 

A step that mounts the stair; 
Come to me, I would touch your living flesh — 
Look how they disappear, ah, where, ah, where? 
Because I name them not, deaf to my prayer. 

If I could only call them as I used, 

Each by his name ! 
Thai violin — what ancient voice that mused ! 
Yon is the hill, I see the beacon flame. 
My feet have found the road where once I came. 
Quick — but again the dark, darkness and shame. 

— Reprinted by permission of McClure's Magazine. 

Memory may also become a judgment upon 
life, from the accusing aspect of which men have 
ever sought to escape — a book of experience 
from which they would fain pluck some leaves. 

Macbeth at the close of his bloody career im- 
plores his physician to give him some antidote 
to pluck from his memory a rooted sorrow. He 
says, "Canst thou not minister to a mind dis- 
eased, pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow?" 
but the physician answers, *'No, therein the pa- 
tient must minister to himself." And memory 
to Lady Macbeth after the murder of the good 



Page Twelve MEMORY 



King Duncan became an avenging nemesis and 
gave her no rest, but compelled her sleeping 
body to reenact again and again all the details 
of that horrible deed. In her soliloquy she con- 
fuses the varied actions of that dreadful night 
and her disordered mind jumps from one scene 
to another, but always memory recalled the blood 
upon the hand, the signal of the bell calling them 
to the deed, the darkness of the night, the howl- 
ing of the tempest, the cowardice of Macbeth, 
the awful picture of the murdered Duncan. 
Memory brought back to her the smell of the 
blood, which all the perfumes of Arabia could 
not efface; the knocking at the gate; memory 
recalled every detail of the bloody deed and made 
her repeat it over and over again, as soon as she 
fell asleep until at last nature gave way and the 
unhappy Queen passed into the slumber of death. 
In the dead of night we see her wandering 
through the ghost-haunted castle and hear her 
plead, "Out, out, damned spot." 

But we not only have a memory which links 
the past, the present and the future in its magic 



MEMORY Page Thirteen 



web — but in many cases we have chains of mem- 
ories, multiple personalities, some of them at 
variance with each other. The strange case of 
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was not a figment of 
Robert Louis Stevenson^s imagination, as many 
think, but one of the real problems of dual per- 
sonality the doctors meet in the hospitals every 
day. 

A recent case of multiple personality that has 
been puzzling the scientific Avorld, was reported 
in The Ladies' Home Journal of recent date, of 
a young woman who developed four distinct 
chains of memory. These memories were di- 
rectly opposite to each other. In one chain the 
young woman was truthful, modest, religious 
and everything to be desired, in the second chain 
she was deceitful, lying, exactly opposite to the 
first personality. By careful training covering 
many months the good memory was made the 
dominant one, and the opposite memory obliter- 
ated. Thus it will be seen that slowly, very 
slowly, do we emerge from the dominance of 
primitive ideas, primitive memories. 



Page Fourteen MEMORY 



When we stop to think that memory has been 
with us from the beginning, that it was a facuhy 
of the first invisible, primal protoplasmic cell in 
its upward sweep of life, expressing itself first 
in the articulata, and successively through fishes 
to reptiles, from reptiles to birds, from birds to 
mammals, and finally, to the apex and climax of 
all these forms and forces, into the body and 
soul of man. Thus man has become a microcosm 
of the universe, a compendium of all animated 
nature and akin to all forms of life. We have 
lived the life of all savage men, we have trod the 
forest's silent depths, and in the desperate game 
of life and death, matched our thought against 
the instinct of the beast. We have lived all 
lives, and through our blood and brain has crept 
the memory of the shadow and chill of every 
death. 

The poet epitomizes and visualizes the whole 
scene for us in the following stanza: 

A fire-mist and a planet, 

A crystal and a cell, 
A jellyfish and a saurian, 

And caves where the cavemen dwell; 



MEMORY Page Fifteen 



Then a memory of law and beauty, 
And a face turned from the clod — 

Some call it Evolution, 
And others call it God. 

It will readily be noted that memory is a racial 
experience conserved and handed down from 
generation to generation and can be traced back 
to the simplest forms of organic life, both in 
animal and plant. Thus memory is a continuous 
process and the whole series of organic life is 
a continuous process, a reproduction of what be- 
longed to the first organic forms. Life is re- 
production and reproduction is nothing else than 
memory. 

Darwin has truly said that growth and evolu- 
tion are mere forms of habit and memory, and 
the passage of an organism through the same 
stages of growth as its ancestors, is due to some- 
thing in the germ cells transmitted from parent 
to child, something akin to memory in the indi- 
vidual. 

It is a very wonderful fact that as the cell 
develops into the perfect organism, it passes 



Page Sixteen MEMORY 



through a series of changes which are believed 
to represent the successive forms through which 
its ancestors passed in the process of evolution. 
This is precisely paralleled by our own experi- 
ence of memory, for it offen happens that we 
cannot reproduce the last learned verse of a 
poem without repeating the former part. Each 
verse is suggested by the previous one, and acts 
as a stimulus for the next. So between the me 
of today and the me of yesterday, lies night and 
sleep, an abyss of unconsciousness, nor is there 
any bridge but memory by which to span the 
chasm, and the abyss between two generations 
is bridged by the unconscious memory that re- 
sides in the germ cells. 

As we rise in the scale jf life, the memory 
cells in the brain increase, and does not this 
slowly developing mental power correspond to 
the evolution of mind in the race? It gives us 
great encouragement for the possibilities of the 
increase of memory in middle Hfe, owing to the 
development of portions of the brain we have 



MEMORY Page Seventeen 



hitherto unused. This subject is full of the 
greatest encouragement to mankind. 

Shakespeare has written, "that we are such 
stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life 
is rounded with a sleep." But it would take 
no great stretch of imagination to paraphrase 
these wonderful words of the great dram- 
atist and say, "we are such stuff as mem- 
ory is made of," and there are organs of the 
soul as well as of the body, which recall much 
of our racial experience since and before the first 
cell divided. This line of reasoning naturally 
leads us up to the most interesting subject of 
ancestral memory, that strange sensation which 
many have experienced of remembering some 
scene they have just set their eyes upon. The 
poet well expresses this feeling: 

I have been here before, 

But when or how I cannot tell; 
I know the grass beyond the door. 

The sweet, keen smell. 
The sighing sound, the lights along the shore 
You have been mine before. 



Page Eighteen MEMORY 



How long ago I may not know; 
But just when, at that swallow's soar, 

Your neck turned so, 
Some veil did fall — I knew it all of yore. 

Bayard Taylor, in his "Poet's Journal," gives 
his experience: 

Departed suns their trails of splendor drew 
Across departed summers. Whispers came 
From voices, long ago resolved again 
Into the primeval silence, and we twain, 
Ghosts of our present self, yet still the same. 
As in a spectral mirror wandered there. 

Wordsworth in his ''Intimations of Immor- 
tality :" 

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: 
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, 

Hath had elsewhere its setting, 
And Cometh from afar: 

Not in entire forgetfulness, 

And not in utter nakedness, 

But trailing clouds of glory do we come 

From God, who is our home. 

Among the many instances of Ancestral mem- 
ory, I will only recount the experience of a rev- 



M EMORY Page Nineteen 



erend gentleman, who on his first visit to Rome 
suddenly found the whole place as familiar to 
him as his own parish, and he found himself 
struggling with a torrent of words describing 
what it was like in the older days. He acted 
as guide and historian to a party of friends who 
concluded that he had made a special study of 
the place and neighborhood. He piloted them 
through the dark underground windings of the 
catacombs, telling them what to expect and veri- 
fying the same as they went along. He led the 
way feeling certain that he knew it and adds 
that there was the feeling that he had been there 
before and had worn armor. This is but one 
case of thousands. That the subconscious self 
should be more strongly developed in some per- 
sons than in others need not create surprise, for 
even before birth the development and retention 
of subconscious impressions in the mind of the 
child has begun and so the foundation is laid 
for the development of his mental nature. These 
early impressions of which no one seems to be 
conscious, least of all the child, gather up powers 



Page Twenty MEMORY 



as the rolling- avalanche and collect for future 
emotions, moods, acts, that make up a greater 
part of the history of the individual and of states 
more eiifective and significant than those that are 
written down in history, or that can be discovered 
in archives, however secret. 

Perhaps that was not wholly a dream of De 
Quincey, Swedenborg and Coleridge that the 
angels would come in the judgment day and take 
a complete record of our lives from the traces 
left in our body and nervous system and by these 
we should be judged. 

But as Emerson has well said, **This mysteri- 
ous power that binds our life together has its 
own vagaries and interruptions." 

Joseph Jefferson was one day introduced to 
General Grant, an event which naturally would 
have impressed him very strongly. A few hours 
later he got into the elevator of the hotel at which 
they were both staying. A short, heavy-set 
man also entered, bowed to Jefferson and made 
some off-hand remark. "I beg your pardon,'* 
said the actor, ''your face is familiar, but I can't 



MEMORY Page Twenty-one 



recall your name." "Grant," said the stranger, 
laconically. In telling the story, Jefferson said: 
"I got off at the next floor for fear I should ask 
him if he had ever been in the war." 

Jefferson also tells the following story on him- 
self: He once went to a postoffice in a small 
town where he w^as unknown and asked if there 
was any mail for him. "What name, sir?" asked 
the clerk. "My name? Oh! Yes, of course. 
Why I play "Rip Van Winkle, you know." "Joe 
Jefferson," said the astonished clerk. "Yes, Jef- 
ferson; many thanks," the actor answered, as he 
received his mail and bowed himself out. 

There is in persons of every age a foreshort- 
ening of memory which may be emphasized 
somewhat in the case of elderly people. Even 
Mr. Ruskin, in his later years, thought that the 
English winter had degenerated from what it 
was in his youth. And James Whitcomb Riley, 
in his "Old Man's Nursery Rhymes," echoes the 
same thought, when he says : 

In the Jolly Winter of the long ago — 
It was not so cold as now — 
Oh, no! No! No! 



Page Twenty-two MEMORY 



Then, as I remember — 

Snow balls to eat — 
Were as good as apples now, 

And every bit as sweet." 

The oldest inhabitant who thinks the winters 
are changing, has forgotten that when he was a 
boy he used to have to get up to make the fire, 
the stove ice-cold, the fire mighty hard to start 
— now he uses steam heat. When a boy he used 
to go out in the early morning, hands stiff with 
cold to feed the stock — now he sits in his warm 
ofifice and watches the stock by means of a ticker. 

Prof. Swing, the late great preacher and writer 
of Chicago, once eloquently wrote: "With a 
sigh we look back toward the studies we once 
pursued with such zeal and to the books whose 
pages once brought such a high pleasure, and 
say: I have forgotten them. At times comes 
the feeling that our memory is not a good one. 
It is that tub full of holes which one of the con- 
demned in the classic inferno was compelled to 
keep stocked with water forever. This poor soul 
was ordained to carry water just such a distance 



MEMORY Page Twenty -three 



and in just such a size of bucket as would make 
it impossible for him to get ahead in his task. 
The two facts — 'holes' and 'forever' must have 
made his sojourn in hell miserable enough. A 
heart-sinking not wholly indifferent comes at 
times to all readers and students who acquire 
and forget, are thrilled and then forget, weep 
and then forget the words which drew tears, 
laugh and then cannot remember what it was 
which gave such merriment. 

"Unable to retain in memory the thoughts of 
the great books of the world it would be well to 
memorize some one verse of each poet and some 
one paragraph of each great prose-writer who 
has deeply impressed us. The first ten lines of 
Scott's Lady of the Lake will be able at all times 
to call up the poem and to represent its pictures ; 
a stanza from Gray's 'Elegy' will recall the digni- 
fied and pensive movement of the poetry and the 
thought; the entire merit of the 'Old Wooden 
Bucket' comes back when we can recite a few 
consecutive lines. A mind well stored with these 



Page Twenty-four MEMORY 



specimens has all his old favorites still within 
reach. A few links stand for the long chain." 

"Passages of Scripture, poems and fine pass- 
ages of prose when carefully memorized furnish 
the mind with materials, create a literary taste, 
give ease and facility of speech and wealth and 
beauty of expression. The careful memorizer 
sees shades of meaning and a harmony of the 
whole which escapes the careless reader. It is 
far from true that in proportion as one attends 
to the form of the poem, he loses the thought. 
The philosophy of Greece developed at the same 
time as the accurate, elegant and finished lan- 
guage in which it was clothed. The mechanical 
memory may be said to constitute the basis of 
the intellectual life. Most words are crystalized 
history. The word father suggests to the child 
its parent; to the patriot, Washington; to the 
devout Christian, God. God is associated in our 
minds with a mood, and the idea of God as pure 
thought in the mind may do for an abstraction 
of science or philosophy, but we have always 
been accustomed to pay reverence or bow the 



MEMORY Page Twenty-five 



head when that name is mentioned." In this 
manner a feeling of reverence is awakened 
through a train of associations as we pronounce 
the name. It is a wonderful fact that words 
retain a power when used in poetry, which they 
lose when used in abstract thought or in systems 
of theology. 

Tennyson has given us a beautiful illustration 
of this great idea in one of his minor poems. 
This poem would have a beauty of its own even 
if we never appreciated the underlying thought 
of association which is introduced by the poet : 

Flower in the crannied wall, 

I pluck you out of the crannies ; 

Hold you here root and all, in my hand, 

Little flower — but if I could understand 

What you are root and all, 

I should know what God and man is. 

While the power of these lines lies in the mem- 
ory which it recalls, and the words and rhythm 
are perfect, there is a picture thrown before our 
attention with the suggestion of a sublime 
thought back of it that awakens our deepest and 



Page Twenty-six MEMORY 



most profound feelings. The poem exerts its 
power by the same old effect of association and 
not only uses memory, but implies an idea. The 
idea implied is that nature has a million living 
forms that are all related — all but parts of one 
stupendous whole, whose body Nature is and 
God the soul. There is a thread that links them 
all together. Every grass, every weed, every 
flower and every tree, from the humblest moss to 
the most splendid lily or rose, are members of 
one family, the flora of the world. There are 
points of similarity and difference. 

To the man of memory, of imagination, "the 
world is really a great Odyssey, a vision of 
strange colored oceans and strange shaped trees. 
In this century, God still walks in the Garden in 
the cool of the day and every bush is aflame with 
his presence. The birth of every child, the ever 
recurring sunrise and sunset is a miracle too 
great for our comprehension/' 

The man of memory, imagination, having seen 
a leaf, a drop of water, can in his mind's eye, 
recreate all the forests, the rivers and the seas of 



MEMORY Page Twenty-seven 



this great globe of ours — in his presence the 
mists rise, the clouds form and float in the blue 
ether, and again return to mother earth in drops 
of rain: "Complaining brooks make the mead- 
ows green, rivers roll in majesty to the soundless 
seas, and poured round all is old ocean's gray 
and melancholy waste." 

The man of memory, of imagination has a 
stage within his brain whereon is set all the 
scenes that lie between the morn of laughter and 
the night of tears and where the players body 
forth the false, the true, the careless shallows 
and the tragic deeps of human life. Upon this 
stage, all the characters of the immortal Shake- 
speare live again and reenact their parts. The 
infant mewling and puking in his nurse's arms, 
the whining school-boy, the woeful lover, the 
soldier full of strange oaths, the justice full of 
wise saws and modern instances, the lean and 
slippered pantaloon, all ages and conditions of 
men. We stand upon the forum at Rome and 
there passes before us in our mind's eye, the 
mighty Caesar, the luxurious Antony, the lean 



Page Twenty -eight MEMORY 



and hungry Cassius, the Noble Brutus. We 
hear the shrill warning of the aged soothsayer: 
"Beware the Ides of March, Beware!" and the 
hoarse murmurs of the surging populace, "Caesar, 
Caesar," all as pictured by the immortal Shake- 
speare. 

The soliloquies of Hamlet still people the brain 
with dreams. The heaths of Scotland are for- 
ever associated with Macbeth and the weird sis- 
ters. King Lear has for all time immortalized 
the early history of Britain. The very name of 
Othello has become a synonym for love and jeal- 
ousy. The melancholy Jacques still haunts the 
forest of Arden. Rosalind's laugh yet reechoes 
through its bosky coverts. Touchstone's wit is as 
nimble as his legs and the rustic Audrey ever 
trips over the greensward at his bidding. The 
Rialto still echoes to the stealthy tread of an 
implacable Shylock and Portia's plea for mercy 
will be uttered by lips as yet unborn. In the 
noon of a midsummer's night we behold Titania 
and her fairy train flying between the moon and 



1 



MEMORY Page Twenty-nine 



earth lulled by the mermaid's song upon the yel- 
low sands. 

The man of memory has lived the life of all 
people of every race, and has listened to the 
eager eloquence of the great orators, has sat 
upon the cliffs with the tragic poets — Euripides, 
Sophocles, Shakespeare — and listened to the mul- 
titudinous laughter of the sea. Was present in 
the groves of Athens when Socrates thrust the 
spear of question through the shield of falsehood. 
Saw that sublime man when he drank the deadly 
hemlock and met the night of death as tranquil 
as a star fades before the light of morning. Has 
watched Phidias as he chiseled shapeless stone 
to forms of love and awe and beauty — has lived 
by the slow and sluggish Nile amid the vast and 
monstrous monuments of the dead and gone 
Pharaohs. Has seen Cleopatra's barge* move 
slowly and stately by, silvered in the Egyptian 
moonlight. Has interpreted the very form and 
features of the mighty Sphynx and disclosed the 
heart of her voiceless mystery. Has heard great 
Memnon's morning song, has lain down with the 



Page Thirty MEMORY 



embalmed dead and felt within their perfumed 
dust the promise of the resurrection and the life. 

In conclusion, I may say, that it is almost 
impossible for us to overvalue the importance 
of a good memory. Not only is it of advantage 
in our every-day life, business, professional, or 
otherwise, not only is it the basis of our personal 
existence here, but also a foreshadowing, a strong 
intimation of immortality. The persistence of 
memory hereafter as a faculty of the soul, is 
taught in all religions — it was handed down from 
Egypt to Greece, and at Elusis formed a part of 
the doctrine communicated to the initiated at the 
Elusinian mysteries. This is of importance, as 
a source to which may be traced certain aspects 
of our modern belief in the persistence of immor- 
tality after death, and the assurance felt by most 
scientific and religious thinkers that the individ- 
ual soul will not lose the memory or the affections 
of its earthly life. 

The belief is most strikingly illustrated in the 
following poem, by Henry Newbolt, entitled "The 
Final Mystery at Elusis." The poem represents 



MEMORY Page Thirty-one 



the initiate in the Elusinian mysteries as receiv- 
ing his last admonition before death. He is sol- 
emnly charged, though trembling with dread and 
parched with thirst more fierce than fire, not to 
drink of the waters of that shadowy pool, that 
means oblivion, the waters of Lethe that rob him 
of memory, but to think of the diviner stream 
from which his life was fed, to flee unto the hills 
and drink of the living waters of memory, and 
so to be as the Father, immortal, blest in remem- 
bered friends and reigning forever. 

Hear now, O Soul, the last command of all — 
When thou hast left thine every mortal mark, 

And by the road that lies beyond recall 

Won through the desert of the burning dark, 

Thou shalt behold within a garden bright 

A well, beside a cypress ivory-white. 

Still is that well, and in its waters cool 

White, white and windless sleeps that cypress-tree; 
Who drinks but once from out her shadowy pool 

Shall thirst no more to all eternity. 
Forgetting all, by all forgotten clean, 
His soul shall be with that which hath not been. 



Fage Thirty-two MEMORY 



But thou, tho' thou be trembhng with thy dread, 
And parched with thy desire more fierce than flame, 

Think on the stream wherefrom thy life was fed, 
And that diviner fountain whence it came. 

Turn thee and cry — behold it is not far — 

Unto the hills where living waters are. 

"Lord, tho' I lived on Earth, the child of Earth, 

Yet was I fathered by the starry sky. 
Thou knowest I came not of the shadows' birth. 

Let me not die the death that shadows die. 
Give me to drink of the sweet spring that leaps 
From Memory's fount, wherein no cypress sleeps." 

Then shalt thou drink, O Soul, and therewith slake 
The immortal longing of thy mortal thirst; 

So of thy Father's life shalt thou partake, 
And be forever that thou wert at first. 

Lost in remembered loves, yet thou more thou 

With them shalt reign in never-ending Now. 

—The Spectator (London). 






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